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SKETCH 



Life, Character axd Work 



ALONZO CRITTENDEN, A.M., Ph.D. 



LATE PRESIDENT 



Packer Collegiate Institute 

Edited by 

MARGARET E. WINSLOW 



NEW YORK 
A. S. BARNES & CO. 

18S5 



...61737 






INTRODUCTION. 



The following Memoir of the life and character 
of the late Alonzo Crittenden, Ph.D., is pub- 
lished under the auspices of the Board of Trus- 
tees of the Packer Collegiate Institute, of which 
till the time of his death he was the honored 
Principal. 

It has been the primal aim of its Author to 
present to the reader a true likeness of this ex- 
cellent man, just as he stood, day by day, for sixty 
years, before teachers and scholars, an animating 
and inspiring presence, commanding the respect 
of all as a faithful guardian, guide, and friend. 

To hundreds and thousands of those who have 
been associated with him in a work which he so 
much loved, or have profited b}' his instructions in 
the several Institutions over which he presided, 
such an aid to memory as this book afifords must 
possess an abiding interest. 

In calling to recollection the traits of character 
that distinguished Doctor Crittenden in his 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

educational life, the testimony of those who were 
co-workers with him has been freely supplied : 
while others whom he led in the paths of knowl- 
edge bear concurrent witness to the vigilance and 
vigor of his administration, and to the happy im- 
press made upon the heart by the high moral pur- 
pose which he steadfastly enforced. 

In the course of the following narrative the 
felicities of his home — a home that divided with 
the school the affections of his warm and loving 
heart — are brought conspicuously to view, as well 
as the beautiful hospitality that characterized his 
rural retirement. 

For him the country had many charms, and his 
love of nature and his love of friends combined to 
make his hospitality delightful to all who were 
privileged to visit him. 

This interesting volume closes with the words 
of eulogy so happil)^ spoken by the various 
clergymen of our own and the neighboring city, 
and with appropriate resolutions adopted by 
Boards of Trustees, of this and other Institutions, 
at the time of his death. 

A. A. Low, 
President of the Board of Trustees. 

Brooklyn, March lo, 1885. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY DAYS. 

PAGE 

Parentage — Birth — Childhood — Education — College Life — 
Goes to Albany — Mary Warner — Marriage — Offspring, . 9 



CHAPTER n. 

THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 

Reminiscences of Old Scholars — Appreciation of the Trustees 
— Professor Horsford's Memories — Dr. Crittenden's 
Account — Tribute of Pupils, ...... 27 

CHAPTER HI. 

THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 

Call for Meeting of Citizens — Invitation to Dr. Crittenden 
— Letter of Acceptance — Move to Brooklyn — Professor 
Alonzo Gray — Academy Built — Opening — The Principal — 
The Library — Anecdotes, ....... 42 

CHAPTER IV. 

LAST DAYS OF THE ACADEMY. 

Discipline — An Old Teacher — Religious Influence — Dr. Spen- 
cer — Sorrows — A Change of Professors — The Fire, . . 60 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 

PAGE 

A Generous Offer — Erection of the Building — Dedication — 
Golden Years — Financial Ability — Principles of Govern- 
ment — Anecdotes, 74 

CHAPTER VI, 

TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 

Quick Intuition — Constancy of Friendship — Revivalist — Un- 
limited Power of Forgiveness — Story of Two Sisters — 
Judicious Charity— Repartee — Illustrations, . . .93 

CHAPTER VII. 

SHADOW AND SUNSHINE. 

War Record — Ph.D. — European Trip — His Daughter's 
Death— The Silver Wedding, II2 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE LAST DECADE. 

Home Life — Somerville — Rothstein Lodge — A New Daugh- 
ter — Correspondence — The Milton Shield — Signing his 
Will, 129 

CHAPTER IX. 

A SAD SPRING-TIME. 

The Last Birthday — Estimate of an Old Teacher — A Base 
Attack — Offers his Resignation — Trustees Refuse to Ac- 
cept — Letter from Professor Eaton — Death of Mrs. Crit- 
tenden — The Alumnae Association, . ... 149 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER X. 

A GARNERED SHEAF. 

PAGE 

The Professor's Illness — Death in the Home — Last Visit to 
Washington — Last Visit to the Packer — Fading Away — 
The End — Journalistic Eulogiums — The Last Obsequies, . i68 



APPENDIX. 



I. Tributes to the Character of the late Professor Crit- 
tenden 199 

II. Funeral Addresses, 215 

III. Extracts from Letters of Condolence, .... 229 

IV. Resolutions of Sympathy, 235 



ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY DAYS. 



Parentage^ — Birth — Childhood — Education — College Life — Goes to 
Albany — Mary Warner — Marriage — Offspring. 

T~\AY after day the coffin-lid covers one and 
another whose life-work, done well and 
bravely, is accomplished, and the grave hides 
forms and faces whose absence makes blanks in 
domestic circles and solitude in human hearts ; yet 
society closes over the vortex with scarcely a rip- 
ple to mark where the lives were lived. There 
are others, however, who because of peculiar gifts 
or graces, or it may be of the exceptional position 
which they have occupied, have so struck the 
roots of their individuality into the hearts and 
homes of the community, that when they fall, a 



10 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

great cry goes up and many are inclined to ask, 
" Who is left to take their places and to carry on 
their work ?" 

Such was the late Principal of the Packer Col- 
legiate Institute and President of its Faculty of 
Instruction. A pioneer in the cause of the higher 
education of women, he entered upon his life- 
work at a period when to be a teacher of girls did 
not seem to promise either a brilliant or influential 
career. But he toiled on patiently, devoting to 
his work his best energies and his ripest judgment, 
subordinating to it private interests and social and 
domestic life ; and his reward has been to live to 
see the enthusiasm of his early years placed in the 
foremost ranks of the onward progress of civiliza- 
tion. He has lived to see education for young 
women stand in the estimation of the community 
on the same plane with that provided for young 
men, and to have Wellesley and Vassar and Leroy 
and Cornell and the Harvard Annex attest what 
others following in his steps have done for our 
girls. 

Dr. Crittenden was a pioneer, and pioneers 
are not usually idealists, nor do they grasp their 



EARLY DAYS. II 

weapons with gloved hands and go forth into the 
wilderness delicately shod. They must take life 
as they find it, make the most of their appliances 
and their materials, and leave it for coming gen- 
erations to do the finer work of polishing and 
adornment. "Those who try educators of 1825- 
1850 by standards of to-day will surely fail to ap- 
preciate the real service they rendered," says a 
correspondent. 

The records of such a life should be preserved 
if only to afford to another time and generation an 
example of what persistent energy, spotless integ- 
rity, and consecrated devotion to one object can 
accomplish when joined to reverent and active 
Christian faith. 

But such a life is difficult to chronicle, since its 
memorials exist partly in files of old and faded 
letters, and still more largely in the affectionate 
memories of those to whom its subject has been 
at once a father and a friend. Moreover it is by 
individual traits, or it may be by marked idiosyn- 
crasies, that a man is distinguished from his fel- 
lows — his kindliness, his humor, his quickness at 
repartee, the trick of gesture, the sudden glance, 



12 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

the smile full of meaning — all of which are difficult 
if not impossible to reproduce. 

The writer has done what she could do to pre- 
sent a life-like picture of the man with his sterling 
virtues and kindly traits, his distinctive peculiari- 
ties, and his loving, tender heart. Yet while 
appreciating the honor done her by those who 
have placed in her hands this " labor of love," she 
realizes ever more deeply her own inadequacy for 
its performance. 

Alonzo Crittenden, A.M., Ph.D., was born in 
the town of Richmond, Berkshire County, Massa- 
chusetts, April 7, 1801. He was the youngest but 
one of ten children, all of whom he outlived with 
the exception of an elder brother, Alvan, who, 
though for many years a great invalid, survived 
his distinguished brother by almost a year. One 
sister died young ; all the other children reached 
the years of maturity. 

Like most of the distinguished men of our age 
and country, the subject of this sketch was a self- 
made man. His father, Levi Crittenden, a sub- 
stantial farmer, well known and highly respected 



EARLY DAYS. 1 3 

in Berkshire County, came to Richmond when a 
young man, it is said as a mule-driver, from the 
South, though by birth he was a New-Englander. 
He was noted for his clear, cool judgment, and 
many incidents of his ready wit are traditional 
among the inhabitants. He is reported to have 
been a man of great physical strength, and the 
story is told of how one day when a neighbor 
was extremely abusive to him, he quietly picked 
the man up and dropped him over the fence. 
Another incident, showing the same intuitive per- 
ceptions joined to ready presence of mind which 
so distinguished the son of the Berkshire farmer, 
is thus told by his grandson : 

" My grandfather, sitting at his front door one 
day, saw a man on horseback passing. Something 
in his manner caused the thought to occur to 
him that the man had stolen the horse on which 
he was riding. Going to the stable and saddling 
his own horse, he pursued. Looking back, and 
seeing he was being followed, the man whipped 
up. My grandfather whipped up. Soon both were 
on a dead run. My grandfather's horse was the 
faster. The man was brousfht back and locked 



14 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

up, and the horse on which he had been riding' 
put in the stable. Some hours after, and while 
my grandfather was reflecting, somewhat uneasily 
perhaps, that he had arrested a man against whom 
no charge had been made, without a warrant, and 
on a mere suspicion for which he could scarcely 
give a reason, some persons came up, and describ- 
ing the man and the horse, asked if any one 
answering to the description had been seen. To 
their astonishment, my grandfather told them he 
had both man and horse in custody. It turned 
out that the man was a horse-thief." 

Levi Crittenden married a lady of Guildford, 
and took her at once to his newly-established 
home in Richmond. Here his children were born, 
and here they grew up surrounded by all the in- 
fluences of the beautiful scenery of Berkshire 
County, and here the temperate frugality and 
comparative hardships of the farm-Ufe of the period 
developed in them manly independence and rug- 
ged strength. Better still, they were always sur- 
rounded by an atmosphere of the highest literary 
culture, and in daily companionship with such 
men as the Seargents, Primes, Fields, Sedgwicks, 
and Wests. 



EARL V DA YS. 1 5 

Growing up thus among the rocks and hills ot 
the Bay State, with a training that had in it no 
elements of effeminacy, the New England boy 
developed a tenacity of life which, in spite of his 
extremely delicate constitution, carried him safely 
beyond the fourscore years supposed to exceed 
the ordinary limit of human existence. To the 
same influences, perhaps, we may trace the sturdy 
independence which would not allow him to bur- 
den his father with the expense of a liberal educa- 
tion, which nevertheless, his ambition fired by the 
literary atmosphere he was constantly breathing, 
he resolved to have. 

Alonzo attended the village school until he had 
learned all it could teach ; then, like so many other 
boys of the county, went to the Lenox Academy, 
where he made such good use of his time that he 
was prepared for college at sixteen. Proceeding 
at once to Schenectady, he entered Union Col- 
lege, then under the presidency of Dr. Eliphalet 
Nott, whose influence could be ever afterwards 
traced in his life and teachings. 

The young collegian carried with him only fifty 
dollars of his father's money, a part of which he 



1 6 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

brought back at his first vacation, having by 
school teaching paid all his expenses and laid by 
enough money with which to commence the next 
term. He continued this practice throughout his 
college life, — which was by this drain upon his 
time necessarily protracted a little longer than is 
usual, — and never again cost his father any- 
thing. 

Dr. Crittenden's college course does not seem 
to have been especially marked by anything but 
faithfulness and energy ; indeed, through life the 
successful and honored Principal was not so much 
distinguished for his scholarship as for other traits 
which go to build up beauty of character and to 
insure a high degree of success. He was, how- 
ever, admitted to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, an 
honorary distinction conferred only upon those 
whose scholarship is above the ordinary grade. 
Moreover, so good was his record, and so well 
had his supplementary career of teaching fitted 
him for the position, that at his graduation in 1824 
he, a young man of only twenty-three years, was 
unanimously called to take part in the instruction 
of the Albany Female Academy, of which he soon 



EARLY DAYS. 1/ 

after became Principal : a responsible position 
which he held for almost twenty years. 

Of Mr. Crittenden's social life in Albany very 
few records have been preserved. The family 
correspondence of that period has been almost 
totally destro)'ed ; a few old pupils and teachers 
have kindly contributed their reminiscences, and 
an occasional remaining document preserved 
among the archives of the Albany Female Acad- 
emy has been consulted and embodied in this 
work. 

Dr. Charles E. West, himself an educator of ripe 
experience and deserved popularity, has in the 
article which the reader will find in the Appendix 
drawn a vivid picture of the '' small community of 
brilliant and cultivated people" among whom Mr. 
Crittenden began his life-work. In this commu- 
nity he was not only a welcome guest, but also a 
power. His popularity was great, and he num- 
bered among his personal friends and intimates 
many of the really great men whose names are 
catalogued by Dr. West. 

But alas ! they have all passed away; their mute 
lips refuse to bear their testimony : he outlived 



1 8 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

his generation, and it is a second and a third which 
now rise to call him blessed. 

The valuable correspondence which he must 
once have possessed has all perished, only a stray 
letter or two from old friends being found among 
his papers. One from his esteemed pastor. Rev. 
Dr. William B. Sprague, relates mainly to the 
marriage-ceremony which he performed for his 
young friend, thus uniting him with the noble 
woman who stood by his side for so many years 
as strengthener, counsellor, and friend ; the wife 
whose well-being was ever his chief solicitude, and 
whose death left him for a few brief months in a 
loneliness which he said he never before imag- 
ined. 

Dr. Crittenden was a man who always held 
on to his friends, and the tie between him and his 
Albany pastor was one of peculiar strength and 
life-long endurance. It continued unbroken, in 
spite of changes of residence and pastoral relations, 
until the venerable doctor was called up higher 
some few years before his former parishioner. 

Mr. Critt6nden's old pupils can doubtless re- 
call how often he quoted Dr. Sprague's teachings 



EARLY DAYS. 1 9 

and opinions. During tlie latter years of the old 
pastor's life he indulged in the harmless hobby of 
collecting autograph letters, poems, etc. Dr. 
Crittenden interested himself in procuring 
these, and several of the later letters which have 
been preserved refer to this subject. The fol- 
lowing is a specimen : 

February i6, 1S74. 
My Dear Mr. C: 

I know not what to say to you for your great kind- 
ness in procuring for me and sending to me so many 
invaluable autographs. I do thank you from the 
bottom of my heart, but that does not begin to do 
justice to my gratitude, I leave you to imagine the 
rest. . . . 

I rejoice in all the prosperity of Packer Institute, 
as illustrating the clear vision of its illustrious Princi- 
pal. I am yours most gratefully, 

W. B. Sprague. 

If the mental and spiritual status of a man is, as 
some assert, to be measured by his reverence for 
his wife, Alonzo Crittenden's must be a high 
one. No sketch of him would be complete that 
did not give due importance to the life, personal- 
ity, and influence upon him of Mary Wright 



20 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Warner. Miss Warner was born in Canaan, Co- 
lumbia County, four miles from the early home of 
her husband, January 30, 1806. Her father was 
Elias Warner, whose venerable form and snowy 
hair were familiar to all the old pupils of the 
Brooklyn Female Academy, where he was book- 
keeper for several years ; her mother died when 
her little girl was barely nine years old. She is 
represented by those who knew her in the early 
days when she first came to Albany as extremely 
beautiful. We who knew her in middle life and 
as age crept over her well remember the tall, 
stately figure, the dignified mien, the strong indi- 
viduality of feature marked alike by kindliness 
and common-sense, and the blending of a certain 
homely sympathy which made her a person to be 
confided in while respected. So we Brooklyn 
girls felt about her, and so no doubt felt the 
Albany girls of an earlier day. 

One of these writes : 

" Miss Mary Warner comes up before me as a 
graceful, tall, dignified person, teaching me day 
by day, winning my early love. To her was 
written my first letter. How I wish I had her 



EARLY DAYS. 21 

answer ! Soon after, Miss Warner returned to Al- 
bany as Mrs. Crittenden." 

Another old pupil says : 

" I remember when I was a young girl how 
handsome she was, and I was afraid of her as I 
should have been of a queen or some one very far 
above me. Then when I was older, I felt it was 
the greatest favor that she would talk with me or 
treat me as a friend. I really loved her. She is 
associated with some of my earhest memories, 
when probably she did not know that small eyes 
and a small person were watching and admiring." 

A letter of condolence written after her death 
by a former teacher in the Packer Institute thus 
speaks of this rare life-long companionship, as it 
appeared to a younger generation who knew Mrs. 
Crittenden in the later years of sorrow and pain 
which preceded her death : 

" I feel almost as though my words should be 
those of congratulation, because of the beauty of 
the life so long your own, because of its rarely per- 
fect accord with yours, because of the light from 
Heaven which illumined its entrance into the 
world which knows not pain nor death. It is a 



22 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

blessed thing to come to the earthly end of our 
closest ties with no need for one thought of self- 
reproach, no memory save one unbroken recollec- 
tion of harmonious love. So I must needs count 
you rarely happy now, as in all these years you 
have been faithful and more than faithful to your 
first love. For you the past holds only sweetness, 
and the future only joy unspeakable." 

Miss Mary Warner possessed a happy talent for 
versification, which she continued to exercise till 
the closing years of her life. Many of her pleas- 
ant little impromptus, written upon birthday oc- 
casions or in presenting and acknowledging gifts, 
still remain to attest the writer's talent and good 
feeling. 

From among the little poems preserved in the 
family archives the following is selected, not so 
much because it is better than others, as because 
it exhibits that somewhat rare thing, the love of a 
husband and wife not cooled by the wear and tear 
of life, but as freshly beautiful and replete with 
sentiment as when two young hearts beCame one 
half a century before : 



EARL Y DA YS. 2$ 

A Birthday Tribute. 
■ April 7, 1877. 

Friend of my youth, and of my riper age, 
Whose history blends with mine along life's page, 
We've walked together through the rolling years, 
Bearing each other's burdens, hopes, and fears. 

Accept the thanks I ever owe to thee 
For all thy faithful care and love to me ; 
Forgive each word and every act of mine 
That could have grieved a heart so true as thine. 



The shades of evening now begin to fall 
Across the path that ends for us and all ; 
May heavenly light, with ever-kindling ray, 
Direct our course along the shadowy way ! 

And when the works of earth are fully done. 
Our days all spent, our earthly courses run. 
May faith assured look longingly above 
To meet our Lord, the Lord of Life and Love ! 

Your Affectionate Auld Wife. 



Possibly this peculiar talent, prized at all times 
by Mr. Crittenden, first attracted his admiration 
for the young poet; but her more substantial 
qualities soon won his heart, and on August 5, 
1829, the pair were married. Soon after they 
opened the boarding-house for the Academy, over 



24 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

which the 3-oung matron presided with such 
executive ability and graceful dignity for so many 
3^ears, first in Albany and afterwards in Brooklyn. 

Concerning Mr. Crittenden's choice of a wife, 
Rev. Dr. Fulton in his funeral address says: 

" Dr. Crittenden believed in a womanly wo- 
man, not in a manl}- woman or a womanly man. 
He found a womanly woman in his wife. Because 
of this fact he trained women to be women ; not 
women's rights women, nor women with missions 
especiall)-, but women to beautify homes, to glad- 
den life, and to carry out in life God's conception 
of woman when he placed her beside Adam in the 
garden of Eden. Mrs. Crittenden was cultured 
and fitted to adorn an)'- circle, but she shone with 
most beautiful lustre in her home." 

It was as " house-mother" that Mrs. Crittenden 
shone pre-eminently. Often at the head of a 
household of sixty or seventy, she was always 
equal to the occasion, never worried or flurried, 
doing with her might what her hands found to do. 
Watching with the sick, lending a S3^mpathizing 
ear to troubles whose importance could only be 
measured b}' the suffering they inflicted ; caring 



EARL y DA VS. 25 

for her own little family, entertaining largely, 
doing her own share of church-work and taking 
her part in public charities, Mrs. Crittenden's life 
might advantageously bear the test of a compari- 
son with Solomon's "virtuous woman." 

Three children crowned this happy marriage : 
Catherine Seymour, born in Albany, May 16, 1S30; 
Edward Warner, born in Albanv, October 19, 
1835 : and Eliza Seymour, born after the familv 
had removed to Brooklyn, in 1845. 

On these children all the love of Mr. Critten- 
den's afifectionate heart which was not absorbed 
by his wife was centred. Never was there a man 
of stronger family affections ; he lived again in his 
children, and alas! suffered through them the 
deepest sorrows of his generally happy and suc- 
cessful life. But one of the three lives to mourn 
his loss : the others — the little one who, though 
dying almost in infancy, was to him ever a still- 
living reality, and the grown-up and accomplished 
daughter whose early death brought sorrow to so 
many hearts — both went before to welcome his 
home-coming at the last. 

Of little Lillv he was wont to sav, " When the 



26 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

shepherd wants the sheep to follow, he carries the 
lambs in his bosom." The eldest daughter mar- 
ried Charles H. Dana of Brooklyn, lived long 
enough to present two little granddaughters to 
take, if possible, her place in her father's heart, 
and then faded away in her early womanhood at 
beautiful Mentone, on the Italian shore. 

No doubt ere this he has met the three dear 
ones, mother and daughters, by the golden strand 
of that country * where there shall be no more 
sea." 



THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 2/ 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 

Reminiscences of Old Scholars — Appreciation of the Trustees — 
Professor Horsford's Memories — Dr. Crittenden's Account — 
Tribute of Pupils. 

A /r R. CRITTENDEN'S history during the 
twenty years of his Albany life is largely 
that of the Academy at whose head he was placed. 
Its details have been difficult to gather, though 
multitudes of elderly women who remember their 
old instructor " in the kindness of their youth' 
speak with loving remembrances of his just sever- 
ity tempered with kindness, and of the inspiration 
he gave to their lives. 

One of these earlier pupils writes: 

" I fear I cannot recall the daily life of over fifty 
years ago. While in Mr. Crittenden's depart- 
ment I remember him as a young gentleman of 
pleasing manner, seeing all our foibles as it were 
at a glance, guiding us, making us feel the neces- 



28 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

sity of culture, genial, kind, truly desiring our 
best good. I remember his saying to me, ' Not a 
lazy thread in your body, only too full of mis- 
chief ; you must apply yourself to study.' Once 
hearing a recitation in geography he said, ' Young 
ladies, go to your seats and study a half-hour,' I 
saucily replied, ' I know the lesson :' and I do be- 
Heve, after making me sit down alone, he asked me 
about every question in it. He had made up his 
mind I should miss, and I did linger on the last 
question. However, I conquered ; and his ' Well 
done ' put us both in a good humor. We girls 
always thought nothing escaped his critical eye. 

"■ I feel deeply grateful to Mr. Crittenden for 
his implanting in my mind high aspirations. My 
youngest daughter was placed at the Packer; his 
greeting was always so pleasant, she learned to 
love him as I did." 

A touching testimonial concerning those early 
school-days comes from a lady of over eighty 
years, who was one of the last visitors our vener- 
able friend ever received, and whose acquaintance 
with him began in a remarkable way. 

When a young woman, she married, and went 



THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 29 

with her husband to reside on a large tract of land 
in Canada, from which during some political con- 
vulsions they were obliged to fiee suddenly in the 
night, leaving all their possessions behind them. 
They reached Albany in a state of absolute desti- 
tution, and Mr. Crittenden, who had known the 
lady in her girlhood, at once gave her employ- 
ment as teacher of the harp in his family, and so 
provided for herself and her husband till the po- 
litical storm had blown over and they were able 
to return to their luxurious home. She writes: 



September 6, 18S4. 
Dear Madam: 

I have just received your letter, and it has caused 
my soul to thrill with some of the dearest and sweet- 
est memories of my friend Mr. Crittenden, who still 
lives in the hearts of thousands now ready to spring 
forward and testify to the good which they have re- 
ceived from him, and to bequeath their own deep 
love and reverence for him to their offspring. . . . 
For forty years I knew him, and in all that time 
the beauty of his character with each passing de- 
cade shone forth with a greater lustre, until he 
reached the side of the blessed Master in whose ser- 
vice he had spent his life. True, he had taught 
worldly science; but he never forgot the spiritual. 
He never forgot that Science and the great Book of 
inspiration upon which our faith is founded can go 



30 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

hand in hand and each dignify the other. This gave 
an irresistible force and charm to his teaching, and 
insured the happiest results. I had the honor and 
pleasure of possessing the friendship of this good 
man, together with that of his lovely family, and I 
esteemed it far beyond riches. 

Yours very sincerely, 

K. D. 

The following letter comes from a life-long 
friend and pupil living in Montreal, w^ho was wont 
till the close of her life to consult her old teacher 
in cases of perplexity and claim his sympathy in 
affliction and sorrow : 

" It was my privilege to be placed under the 
care of the late Mrs. and Dr. Crittenden at the 
age of fourteen, and during the four years I re- 
mained with them I experienced a loving care 
which endeared them to me for life. Dr. Crit- 
tenden's large sympathies and wonderful dis- 
cernment of character gave him a magnetic in- 
fluence over his pupils. The results of the labors 
of such a life can know no limit, they are as bound- 
less as eternity. Thousands now living will ever 
remember with gratitude his loving, earnest, never- 
to-be-forgotten voice of counsel. His large heart 



THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 3 I 

was always ready to cheer and comfort and pro- 
tect the unfortunate and weak-hearted. His 
hospitality knew no limit, and he had the happy 
faculty of making a favor conferred felt to be a 
favor received by him." 

The pupils who boarded in Mr. CRITTENDEN'S 
family were, of course, better acquainted with 
him than the day-scholars, and their reminiscences 
of him are the fullest. Many of the Southern 
girls remained with him during the vacations, and 
to these he often stood in a relation of temporary 
guardianship. Some of these retain very warm 
recollections of their early friend. A lady in 
Greenville, South Carolina, writes : 

" In the years 1842 and '43 I was his pupil and 
a member of his family. He impressed me as one 
who was well furnished with the knowledge, the 
characteristics of mind, the qualities of heart and 
courtesies of life which made him the thorough 
teacher, the true leader who pointed out the 
wrong while he encouraged the right, — the tender 
guardian, the kind friend with a ready sympathy 
for those who were in trouble, and the true gentle- 
man who honored woman in his intercourse with 



32 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

his pupils. I can remember occasions, when em- 
barrassed and excited, a word or look from him 
would put me entirely at ease. While he was 
just in administering- reproof, words were never 
wasted, and when they had effected their pur- 
pose sunshine was at once restored ; all was in the 
past, not to be brought forward again. 

" I can only add my testimony to that of many 
others that the influence of those school-days was 
uplifting, encouraging, strengthening, and that 
ever after the name of Mr. Crittenden was men- 
tioned with reverence and love. 

*' For many years we had no personal inter- 
course, and our lives seemed to drift apart, until 
circumstances brought us together again in the 
year 1870. Then it was as though we had never 
parted, for there was the same bright, cheerful 
spirit, the same quick, elastic movement which 
made us recognize him in his playful assumed dis- 
guise, and we found, my sister and myself, the same 
true heart which having once professed friendship 
changes not, his own words expressing it concisely 
— * once, now, and forever your friend.' " 

That Mr. Crittenden's own generous kind- 



THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 33 

ness had a great deal to do with cementing lasting 
bonds of affectionate respect not only with his 
pupils but also with their parents, the following 
letter found among his papers will prove: 

May 9, 1845. 
My Dear Sir: , 

In reference to the very kind treatment my children 
have received, I must just repeat here what I have 
already said in my previous letter. I feel that I really 
want terms to express the accumulated obligations 
under which your kind sister and yourself have laid 
me for the truly unmeasured acts of goodness ex- 
perienced 'from you by my children, and that cer- 
tainly in very trying circumstances, that were as little 
anticipated by me, when last in Albany, as was the 
great extent of these kind and generous acts which 
they occasioned. 

I can only now add that I must in the first place 
endeavor my best to discharge the more nominal part 
of the debt that comes under the denomination of 
dollars and cents as soon as possible, and then plead 
bankruptcy for the weightier part which makes claims 
on my gratitude that I am unable to meet. 

A. A. T. 

The gentlemen who had placed Mr. Critten 
DEN at the head of their institution seem to have 
held him in high esteem ; and that this esteem was 
much prized by him is evident from the care with 



34 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

which the yellow paper containing the following 
resolutions has through all these years been trea- 
sured. 

From the scanty records of the time it appears 
that a certain teacher had brought grave charges 
against the Principal concerning which he in- 
dignantly demanded a full investigation ; this 
document and the action it embodied were pro- 
bably the result of this investigation. 

Resolution passed by the Board of Trustees of 
THE Albany Female Academy, August 4, 1829. 

Resolved, mianimously, That the Treasurer pay to the 
Principal of the Academy the sum of one hundred 
dollars, as a special mark of the respect and esteem 
which this Board entertain for him, and of their 
confidence in his ability and fidelity. 

W. Boyd, Chairman. 
Gideon Hawley, Secretary. 

Professor E. N. Horsford now of Cambridge, 
Mass., was for several years Mr. Crittenden's 
Assistant and Professor of Natural Sciences and 
Mathematics in the Albany Academy. A very 
warm friendship grew up between the two co- 
laborers, which never cooled as the years went 



THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 35 

by ; indeed a constant repetition of mutual good 
offices onl}' made it grow stronger to the end. 

The present ill-health of the Professor makes it 
impossible for him to contribute the full account 
of the Albany Academy and its Principal which 
was solicited for this memorial. In a brief note of 
apology he says : 

" I fear there is nothing of Mr. Crittenden's 
in print that will aid you. 

" He taught two books only, — the same that 
Dr. Nott taught at Union College, — Kames' ' Ele- 
ments of Criticism ' and Butler's ' Analogy.' He 
brought with him from Union College, where he 
graduated, all Dr. Nott's choice anecdotes in 
illustration of these two books. 

" The grading of the Academy at Albany arose 
1 do not know how. It was twenty years before I 
became a teacher there. It was essentially the 
same as that of the Packer Collegiate Institute. 
At Albany the great achievement was composi- 
tion. I do not think the study of Latin and Greek 
was pursued. There was French. But the stress 
was laid upon composition as the expression of 
the study of English. For public exhibition there 



36 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

was nothing like the classes in Karnes and Butler. 
The young ladies talked and wrote wonderfully 
well. 

" I do not think Mr. Crittenden had any idea 
of young ladies pursuing studies in the same plane 
with college students. I think his general idea — 
and in this I think he pursued much the same 
course that Mrs. Willard did — was that ladies 
should be fitted specially to preside over house- 
holds ; and to this end the great accomplishments 
were talking upon the great topics in taste, mental 
and moral philosophy, criticism and analysis, and 
writing^ 

Another teacher of those days says : 
" Our old Principal was ever a man of supreme 
devotion to the duty of the hour ; he never wasted 
strength on side issues, nor diluted the influence 
his strong individuality brought to bear upon the 
business in which he was engaged by spreading it 
over a variety of enterprises at once. Indeed the 
secret of his success through life, and that by 
which he made three successive educational in- 
stitutions successful, was his personal adoption of 
that rule of Lord Brougham's which he so con 



THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 37 

stantly urged upon his pupils — ' Be the whole 
man at one thing at a time.' " 

Dr. West, who of all men living knew most 
about the Academy, its inception and its history, 
has told the whole with great succinctness in his 
"letter" (published in the Appendix), and his work 
need not be duplicated. 

Mr. Crittenden was always a man of action, 
and he has left few written records of his opinions 
on educational or other cognate topics. On one 
occasion, being called upon to furnish some con- 
tribution for the educational department of a 
work to be entitled " The Public Service of the 
State of New York," he dictated a paper which, as 
it describes the whole movement which resulted 
in the successive founding of the Albany Female 
Academy, the Brooklyn Female Academy, and 
the Packer Collegiate Institute, is in place at this 
point. Some extracts at least will be of interest 
to the reader. The work has since been com- 
pleted at great expense, and sent to all the leading 
libraries of Europe. 



38 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

The Packer Institute. 

This institution sustains tlie closest relation, if 
indeed it may not be almost considered as identical, 
with the very earliest endowment for purposes of 
female education in the State of New York. In the 
year 1811, Chancellor Kent, John V. Henry, Gideon 
Hawley, and others, of like purpose and culture, re- 
siding in Albany, desiring facilities for the higher 
education of their daughters, formed an association, 
erected buildings, provided a library, apparatus, etc., 
and commenced operations. 

The institution increased, and soon required more 
ample accommodations. In 1821 the association was 
incorporated by the Legislature under the name 
and title of the Albany Female Academy. The 
Legislature, at the same time, donated one thousand 
dollars to the institution, the first money ever ap- 
propriated by the State of New York for female 
education. 

The late Chancellor Ferris was for several years 
President of the Board of Trustees, and after his re- 
moval to the city of New York exerted his influence 
in founding the Rutgers Female Institute — now 
Rutgers College. 

In 1844 an institution intended to be modelled on 
the same general plan was established in this city under 
the name of the Brooklyn Female Academy, and was 
incorporated the same year by the State Legislature. 

It is believed that the principal female institutions 
of this and other States for the higher education of 
women, in a very great degree, had their origin in the 
thought and enterprise of Chancellor Kent, and his 
associates, in the early part of the century. . . . 



THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 39 

Recognizing the constantly increasing claims of 
cultured society, tlie Faculty of the Packer Institute 
have sought not so much to emulate the fame of 
universities, as to prepare their pupils for the actual 
duties and responsibilities that await them. Learn- 
ing is made subservient to life. The methods of in- 
truction are based upon the "drawing-out process" 
rather than the "pouring-in process." The great 
effort of the teachers is to help the student to help 
herself. Personal assistance in study is only given 
when the problem is evidently beyond the powers of 
the pupil. 

Ill February, 1843, the Trustees of the Albany 
Academy, in presenting their semi annual report, 
bore this testimony to their appreciation of the 
character and services of the Principal, who had 
been again maligned by some malicious enemies : 

" The Trustees regret that the recent attempt to 
injure the Academy by anonymous publications 
and more private insinuations and slanders should 
render it expedient to add anything to what has 
been already said. But as faithful guardians of 
the interests committed to their trust, they deem 
it proper to say both to the stockholders and the 
public that they are not aware of any just ground 
for the attacks which have been made upon the 
institution or the individuals connected with it. 



40 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

To meet an unfortunate reduction in the amount 
of income, all our expenditures have been re- 
duced so far as that could be done without im- 
pairing the high character and usefulness of the 
institution. The Principal, without abating any- 
thing of his zeal to maintain the reputation of the 
school, has for the last two years voluntarily 
relinquished five hundred dollars of his salary. 

" It is due to the Principal of the Academy to 
say that he has labored for nineteen years with 
eminent success in the station which he occupies, 
and that he enjoys the unabated confidence of 
every member of the Board." 

To this testimonial, the last which this Board 
ever had an opportunity of offering to their 
Principal, are appended the names of the Trus- 
tees: 

Green C. Bronsom, President. 

B. T. Welsh, Ira Harris, 

William L. Marcy, Ezra P. Prentice, 

Isaac N. Wycoff, Edwin Croswell, 

Richard V. Dewitt, Wm. B. Sprague, 

Thomas W. Olcott, John Q. Wilson, 

Duncan Kennedy, James McNaughton. 



THE ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY. 4 1 

Another pleasant tribute of affection and esteem 
which reached the Principal about this time — the 
close of his services in Albany — was a New Year's 
gift from sixty-six of his pupils, whose names were 
appended to the following note : 

Will Mr. Crittenden kindly accept from the young 

ladies of the Academy the accompanying set of chess, 

as an expression of their affectionate regard for his 

untiring exertions not only for their intellectual 

attainments, but for the cultivation of their moral 

sentiments without which all other acquirements are 

useless ? They sincerely wish him a Happy New Year, 

and desire each successive one may return him a 

richer harvest of love and gratitude. 

Hannah J. Skinner, 

Eloise a. Hunting, 

Cotnmittee. 
Albany, January i, 1843. 



42 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 

Call for Meeting of Citizens — Invitation to Dr. Crittenden — 
Letter of Acceptance — Move to Brooklyn — Professor Alonzo 
Gray — Academy Built — Opening — The Principal — The Library 
— Anecdotes. 

A S stated both by Dr. Crittenden and Dr. 
West* several distinguished Brooklyn gen- 
tlemen were, as early as 1840, desirous of estab- 
lishing in their city a girls' school similar in 
character and design to the Albany Female Acad- 
emy and Rutgers Institute in New York. A 
brief sketch of the inception, preliminary arrange- 
ments, and final carrying out of this plan may be 
gathered from the minutes of the early Trustees' 
meetings, still preserved in the archives of the 
Packer Institute. 

The following call was issued December 19, 
1844: 

* See Appendix. 



THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 43 



Female Education. 

A meeting of the friends of Female Education in 
this city will be held in the Hamilton Room in the 
Brooklyn Institute (late Lyceum), on Friday evening 
next, the 20th inst, at 7 o'clock, to adopt suitable 
measures for the establishment of a Young Ladies- 
Institute, upon a plan similar to the Rutgers Female 
Institute in the city of New York. 

It is expected that the Rev. Dr. Ferris, President 
of the Rutgers Institute, and other gentlemen, will 
address the meeting-. 



'S- 



The signatures of twelve leading citizens were 
appended, and in answer to the call a large, enthu- 
siastic gathering of those favorable to the cause 
was held on the appointed evening; George 
Wood, Esq., presiding, and Francis Spies acting 
as secretary. 

After some very interesting remarks delivered 
by the Rev. Dr. Ferris, President of Rutgers 
Female Institute, on the subject of female educa- 
tion, a committee of five was appointed to open a 
subscription for the capital stock of a higher 
school for girls and make application for a char- 
ter for the same at the ensuing legislature. 
Messrs. A. Crist, M. Kimball, W. S. Packer, 



44 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Francis Spies, and D. G. Cartwright composed 
the committee. 

Another meeting was held in the room of the 
Common Council, January ii, 1845, ^^ith Cyrus 
P. Smith in the chair. Dr. Ferris made a second 
address, after which the chairman of the com- 
mittee reported that a fund of thirty thousand 
dollars would be needed to carry out the pro- 
posed enterprise, of which twenty-four thousand 
dollars had already been obtained. The first 
Board of Trustees was then elected. Their 
names were as follows : 

George Wood, Thomas Baylis, 

E. D. Hurlburt, John H. Prentice, 

W. S. Packer, John Skillman, 

Seth Low, J. H. Smith, 

Abraham Crist, D. G. Cartwright, 

Francis Spies, W. I. Cornell, 

Peter Clark, O. H. Gordon, 
David Coope. 

These names, "familiar in our ears as house- 
hold words" in the days when we were "Acad- 
emy girls," are, all but one, now names of the 
dead. But their owners laid broad foundations, 
and builded wisely thereon for future generations. 



THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 45 

They rest from their labors, but their works do 
follow them. The womanhood of the nation owes 
them its suffrages. Perchance they have already 
welcomed home him whom they first welcomed to 
the headship of their infant institution and who 
outlived them all but one. 

There was some hesitation as to the name of 
the new school, the choice balancing for some 
time between the "Nassau Female Academy" and 
the "Brooklyn Female Academy" — the latter 
being adopted March 15th. On the 4th of that 
month the site of the building — the same as that 
now occupied by the Packer Collegiate Institute 
— was decided upon, after considerable objection 
on the ground that " it was too far away from the 
thickly populated portion of the city" ! 

On May 17, 1845, the Instruction Committee 
unanimously recommended to the Trustees to in- 
vite Mr. Alonzo Crittenden of Albany to ac- 
cept the appointment of Principal of the Brooklyn 
Female Academy, at a salary of two thousand 
dollars. Mr. Seth Low moved the adoption of 
the recommendation. 

Mr. Crittenden sent this letter of acceptance : 



46 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 



Albany Female Academy, 
June 6, 1S45. 
John H. Prentice, Esq. 

My Dear Sir: Will you have the goodness to com- 
municate to your associates of the Committee and to 
the Board of Trustees you represent my acceptance 
of the invitation tendered to me in your letter of the 
19th instant to take the charge as Principal of the 
Brooklyn Female Academy ? 

The decision I now announce is one deeply affect- 
ing my future usefulness and happiness, and it has 
been made under circumstances of so much embar- 
rassment that an earlier reply has been impracticable. 
For the generous indulgence granted for the con- 
sideration of this important subject you will please 
accept my thanks. 

If I have not misapprehended your Committee, you 
will expect my service for the first of September. In 
the mean time it will be my interest and happiness at 
any and all times to co-operate with your Trustees 
or any of their committees in any efforts to promote 
the interest of your institution. 

I cannot doubt but with the enlarged views enter- 
tained by your Board of Trustees and the liberal 
facilities proposed to be furnished that the Brooklyn 
Female Academy will at no distant time take rank 
with the first-class seminaries in the country, and be 
an ornament and pride to your beautiful city. 

For yourself and each member of your Board ac- 
cept my best wishes for your health and happiness. 
Most truly and respectfully 

Your obedient servant, 

A. Crittenden. 



THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 47 

In accordance with this letter Mr. Crittenden 
moved to Brooklyn with his family as soon after 
the close of the Albany term as he could make it 
convenient to do so, and at once devoted himself 
to superintending the building arrangements and 
laying plans for the future prosperity of the new 
academy. 

On the 25th of November Professor Alonzo 
Gray was engaged, at a salary of twelve hundred 
dollars, and at once entered upon the work of 
superintending the laboratory, apparatus, etc. 

So efficient did this joint supervision prove, and 
so rapidly was the work pressed forward, that the 
new academy buildmg was opened for inspection 
on Monday, May 5, 1846. Public exercises were 
held in the chapel the same evening, at 7.30 p.m., 
on which occasion the address was made by the 
Principal's old pastor, Dr. VVm. B. Sprague, of 
Albany. His new pastor, Dr. I. S. Spencer, was 
also present, and took, then as ever after till his 
greatly lamented death, a warm interest in the 
institution and its concerns. The next week, May 
14, 1846, the school was opened with three hun- 
dred and fifty pupils. 



48 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

The first term was necessarily experimental ; 
plans were to be tried, departments graded, the 
curriculum adjusted, and the brief weeks of late 
spring and early summer proved all too short for 
the work. No class was graduated that year. 

One of Dr. Crittenden's most marked traits 
was his keen insight into character. His rare 
wisdom in the selection of his teachers was one of 
the potent agencies by which he secured the suc- 
cess of his schools. The first Board of Instruc- 
tion was largely made up of Albany material, both 
teachers and older scholars. They knew him, un- 
derstood his methods and idiosyncrasies, and thus 
the whole Board worked together in harmony 
from the start. Mr. Crittenden was not only 
Principal of the Academy ; he was its overseer in 
the fullest sense of that word. Nothing that oc- 
curred in the great building, from garret to cellar, 
escaped his supervision. The pupils considered 
him ubiquitous : so quiet was his light, elastic foot- 
step, and so great the agility with which he was 
wont to dart from one story to another in search 
of possible disorder or need of discipline, that the 
girls never knew whether he was looking at them 



THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 49 

or not. He personally exemplified the truth oi 
another favorite motto : " The eye of the master 
can do more work than both his hands." Every 
teacher who has ever taught under his super- 
vision cannot but remember how constantly he 
quoted for their benefit a well-known aphorism 
slightly altered to suit the circumstances : " * Eter- 
nal vigilance is the price of other things besides 
' liberty.' " 

The first class which was graduated from the 
Brooklyn Femaie Academy, July 21, 1847, con- 
sisted of thirteen members whose faded signatures 
are still appended to the following graceful little 
poem of 

Farewell. 

Pleasant, oh ! very pleasant to our tread 

Hath been this path in which for a brief while 

Thy hand hath led us, — thou whom our young hearts 

Revere and love ; thou who hast been to us 

A kindly teacher, counsellor and friend. 

Yet tears are gathering in our eyes this hour, 

Warm tears and sad, to think that all so soon 

We in thine ear must breathe a sad "Good-by." 

Oft will our hearts turn to these classic halls. 
Oft of thy welfare ask, and often breathe 
An earnest prayer that God may be with thee ; 
May be with all who to thy care are given ! 



50 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Years, weary years may pass ere we shall reach 
The home our Father God hath promised us ; 
Yet ne'er may we forget thy words, our friend ; 
Ne'er cease to ask that in that better home 
We on thy face once more may gladly look ! 
And now farewell ! farewell ! May the slight gift 
We place with grateful hearts within thy hand 
Be a memento of the pleasant hours 
That under tliy kind guidance we have passed ! 



The preservation for so many years of this little 
time-worn waif, when the correspondence of the 
great and the good has nearly all perished, shows 
the warm appreciation of the kind recipient for 
the girlish love which dictated it. 
, An old pupil, afterwards a teacher and now a 
writer for the press, says: 

" It was in the autumn of 1847 that I first be- 
came acquainted with Dr. Crittenden, and 
commenced a friendship, fatherly on his side, 
and on mine full of grateful affection, which 
nothing could ever shake or weaken. I well re- 
member how, a little shivering child, I was taken 
to the Academy and consigned to its Principal ; 
how, utterly unused to contact with others, and 
prepared for school life only by desultory home 
study, I ' lingered trembling at the brink, and 



THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 5 I 

feared to launch away,' till he kindly won from me 
what I did know, and placed me just where de- 
ficiencies could be rectified without sensitiveness 
being mortified. I remember, moreover, how 
quick he was to recognize from the first the 
facilis scribendi, and by even more than judicious 
commendation to encourage the taste that might 
perhaps have lain buried under other things, thus 
paving the way towards the attainment of honor- 
able competence, and preparing a consecrated pen 
to attempt some little service in the Master's 
cause. 

" Another reminiscence of those early days is 
the Commencement night, when, as the hour for 
leave-taking came, I sobbed, in girlish fashion, ' I 
wish yoic were my father; then I should not have 
to go away.' And his response was, * Never 
mind; I will be your second father and friend 
always.' 

" Most faithfully was that promise kept. As 
life's duties and responsibilities thickened, his was 
the counsel always sought, the advice generally 
taken ; and when in a few years it became neces- 
sary to seek a position of usefulness and emolu- 



52 ALONZO CRITTENDEh\ 

ment, his interest secured one in the dear Alma 
Mater. Here for a long succession of years I 
was in ahnost daily intercourse with him, and 
learned to appreciate the good points in his 
rather unique character." 

Prominent among these points was executive 
ability, the power of governing without seeming 
to control, of dissolving complications without 
open ruptures, of divining as by intuition the 
persons and measures most conducive to the 
inherent excellence, as well as the outward repu- 
tation, of the institution ; and no doubt its unex- 
ampled prosperity and continued success were 
largely due to this peculiar combination of quali- 
ties. 

The recitation-hours devoted to the studies then 
taught by Mr. Crittenden — Kames' Elements- 
Butler's Analogy, Abercrombie's Intellectual Phi- 
losophy, Paley's Natural Theology, and Wayland's 
Moral Science — were looked forward to by some 
of his pupils with anticipations of unmixed de- 
light. His repetition of Dr. Nott's anecdotes, — 
all new to them, — with multitudes of fresh illus- 
trations and witty sayings of his own, were a 



THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 53 

constant source of interest ; while the simple way 
he had of incidentally introducing sacred themes, 
not perfunctorily, but as though they were the 
most natural outgrowth of the subject, was ex- 
ceedingly impressive. 

" Whatever may be the experience of others," 
writes the pupil before quoted, " I always feel 
that my first religious impressions were the result 
of those words. Reverence for the Bible, belief 
in orthodoxy, and a personal sense of responsi- 
bility seemed to grow and thrive in the atmos- 
phere of those daily seances. Even now, after an 
interval of over thirty years, memory reconstructs 
the picture of that beloved library, the walls lined 
with glass cases containing books, birds, and curi- 
osities. In the centre stands a long table with a 
group of eager, bright-eyed girls (mostly gray- 
headed now) seated around it. At the head sits 
the Principal, looking, with his dark brown, silky 
curls and slight, elastic figure, altogether too 
young to be father to a girl older than any of 
these, and with him usually some kindl}' minister 
or literary man, ready to puzzle us with hard 
questions, or, as we thought in our youthful van- 



54 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

ity, to admire our proficiency and fluency in re- 
citation." 

Prominent among these remembered great ones 
are Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox, full of word-puzzles 
and the wonderful properties of language ; Dr. S. L 
Prime, then as ever a keen observer ; Dr. Spencer, 
kind, fatherly, and considerate ; Henry Ward 
Beecher, young, enthusiastic, and always in a 
hurry ; Dr. Lewis, of Trinity, grave and preoccu- 
pied ; Dr. William S. Stone, of Christ Church ; Dr. 
Gallaudet, pioneer in the instruction of the deaf 
and dumb ; Dr. Backus, Dr. Bethune, Dr. Rock- 
well, and many more the fame of whose names 
is in all the churches and abroad in the land. 

Many other reminiscences of those recitation- 
hours are still extant. No man ever knew so well 
how to handle a class for exhibition ; how to 
bring out the real information of timid scholars, 
and to give the reins to the fluent ones. But 
should there chance to be no company present, the 
shirks who had hoped to escape under cover of 
the good scholars always came to grief. The 
teacher would hold the text -book open before 
him and say quietly, 



THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 55 

" Next young lady. Next topic." 

Not a word of question or suggestion would 
follow ; and after an appalling silence he would 
say, 

"Can't you say something, or do something? 
Throw an inkstand at me, like Luther, if you can 
do no more. Let me see that you are alive." 

At the head of this library-table sat the Princi- 
pal at all hours of the day, when not engaged in 
flitting about the building— a terror to evil-doers, 
a voice of praise to them that did well. And here 
the girls often brought him their private per- 
plexities and puzzles, receiving from his readv 
sympathy help, instruction, disentanglement, as 
the case might demand. There were girls who 
held that library-table in holy awe, but they did 
not, as a rule, belong to Mr. Crittenden's own 
classes. 

The Brooklyn Female Academy only existed 
eight years, and its memorials are even more diffi- 
cult to find than those connected with the Albany 
school. They are treasured in the hearts and 
memories of many of the mothers and grand- 
mothers of the land who are still in the thick of 



56 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

the battle of life, and have little time or oppor- 
tunity to sit down and write the things they 
might be very ready to say. 

During those eight years the school was grow- 
ing in usefulness, and the character of its Princi- 
pal was developing and strengthening amid the 
labors and under the discipline of life. 

Many incidents of these days, illustrative of 
traits of character, are remembered by Mr. Crit- 
tenden's friends. The following has been kindly 
furnished : 

One night Mrs. Crittenden was suddenly 
awakened b}' the light of a candle, and thinking 
some one might be sick in the house, called 
out the name of the cousin who lived with the 
family and aided in the housekeeping, supposing 
that she had come down for medicine or some- 
thing. 

Receiving no reply, she got up, went out of her 
bedroom, heard footsteps and followed them to 
the head of the basement stairs. There she felt a 
draught of air, and the idea of burglars flashed 
into her mind. Returning to the bedroom, she 
felt for her watch, and not finding it, she awoke 



THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 57 

her husband and told him that burglars were in 
the house. 

" Nonsense !" he said ; but reaching for his watch 
and not finding it, continued : " Call Thomas." 
Thomas was a waiter, a raw Irishman who did 
not know enough to be afraid of anything. 

When Thomas appeared, Mr. Crittenden told 
him to go to Fulton Ferry and arrest any person 
that might be there, while he would go to the 
South Ferry and do the same thing. There were 
only two Brooklyn ferries then, and Mr. Crit- 
tenden's theory was that all evil-doers came from 
New York. 

On his way to the ferry Mr. CRITTENDEN 
stopped at the mayor's house. The mayor put 
his head and night-cap out of the window. 

" Burglars have been in my house. What shall 
I do ?" 

" Go home and go to bed." 

" I mean to catch the rascals." 

" That's a good joke." And the mayor took 
his own advice and went to bed. 

On his way to Fulton Ferry Thomas met a 
watchman who offered to go with him. At the 



58 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

ferry, the ticket-agent said that two men had just 
arone on board of the boat. Thomas went on the 
boat and saw the two men, one of whom had a 
bundle. He returned, reported to the watchman, 
and both of them went on the boat, and, though 
neither of the two men there had a bundle, they 
took the responsibility of arresting both. 

Early the next morning Mr. Crittenden in- 
duced the ferry company to run their boats into 
another slip, and offered a reward for anything 
stolen from his house that might be fished up 
from the bottom of the East River. A dozen or 
more boats, with hooks or rakes, were soon troll- 
ing about the pier. In less than twenty minutes 
the stolen watches were fished up. 

Some other things were found, and the rob- 
bers were sent to State prison for fifteen years. 

Mr. Crittenden's son loves to tell this story, 
while exhibiting the identical watch, in illustra- 
tion of his father's readiness in emergencies, his 
promptness in action, quick decision, fertility in 
resources, persistence in resolution, and complete 
success in whatever he undertook. 

The watch must have been of wonderful work- 



THE BROOKLYN FEMALE ACADEMY. 59 

manship, for its salt bath does not appear to have 
hurt it at all; and many a delinquent of after years, 
in the morning or at " recess," anxious to utilize 
the last moment for play or gossip, is familiar 
with its face, held up with an air of good-humored 
threatening and admonition. 



6o ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 



CHAPTER IV. 

LAST DAYS OF THE ACADEMY. 

Discipline — An Old Teacher — Religious Influence — Dr. Spencer — 
Sorrows — A Change of Professors — The Fire. 

A /TR. CRITTENDEN'S ideas of discipline, 
commenced in the early days of the 
Brooklyn Female Academy and adhered to till 
the end in the government of the Packer Institute, 
never varied. One who was constantly with him 
in the office and had many opportunities of know- 
ing and understanding him writes : 

" He was always careful not to allow a girl to 
be disgraced if it were possible to avoid it. Even 
when she had committed a serious fault he trusted 
to the reformatory power of self-respect, and 
feared to drive her to a loss of this quality by 
making her feel that others did not respect her 
and that the best things were not expected of her. 
This was not a mere theory of his, but a principle 
of conduct which I never knew him to violate." 



LAST DAYS OF THE ACADEMY. 6 1 

The same close observer, to whom was for 
many years entrusted the copying and custody 
of the minutes of the Trustees' meetings, further 
says : 

" During the first year or two of the Brooklyn 
Female Academy cases of discipline among the 
girls were occasionally acted upon by the Board 
of Trustees. Later, and ever since, nothing of 
that character came up for official action. Mr. 
Crittenden settled all such matters and all disa- 
greements with teachers. He used to say : ' I am 
captain of this ship. Providence has indicated 
the necessity of one head to every animal' I 
do not think that this was any assumption of au- 
thority upon his part, or any jealousy of outside or 
official interference. He showed his worldly wis- 
dom by dealing with such matters quietly ; know- 
ing how much bad blood is stirred by publicity, 
and how the original grievance may become as 
nothing compared with the bitterness of partisan- 
ship which public disputes engender." 

A lady for many years the wife of a distin- 
guished Brooklyn physician, but in her youth a 
teacher in the Brooklyn Female Academy, has 



62 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

furnished for this memorial the following delight- 
ful reminiscences : 

" As to Dr. Crittenden, I wish I could help 
you more than I can. I have nothing of the letter 
kind to give. I have had letters from him, but I 
seldom preserve letters, and think I have de- 
stroyed all of his. They were generally short and 
on business matters. I do not believe Mr. Crit- 
tenden was much of a letter-writer. He was too 
nervous a man to confine himself in that way. I 
think his great strength lay in his quickness; de- 
tails were a bore to him. I have thought his 
great executive ability lay most in the suddenness 
of his action ; he was ubiquitous. Wasn't it won- 
derful how he governed that school with no rules ? 
' Do right ' included it all. I don't beheve such a 
case was ever known before. He read human 
nature very easily, and knew how to take advan- 
tage of the fact. 

•* T think of Mr. Crittenden as one of the most 
kindly, warm-hearted men I ever knew ; most sym- 
pathetic and generous. He was not understood by 
many. He did a world of good that never came to 
the light ; his purse was always open for suffering. 



LAST DAYS OF THE ACADEMY. 63 

I recall this example: My father, in one of his 
missionary tours, found a family in great destitu- 
tion, without food or fuel, in one of our coldest 
winter days and in a raging snow-storm. They 
had come from the West Indies; had pawned 
nearly all their clothing and other necessaries in 
New York. My father came home and told the 
story. I went to school with my sympathies all 
aroused for these poor people, and meeting Mr. 
Crittenden, told it to him. Without a mo- 
ment's hesitation he asked if my father could 
get the pawn-tickets. I went home and got 
them, and he set out in that fearful storm and was 
nearly all the day redeeming those tickets, besides 
whice he sent money to the family, and never a 
word said about it. 

"Do you remember H C who came 

to the Institute ? She was very bright and very 
determined to have an education, but she was en- 
tirely dependent I became quite interested in 
her and took her into our family. She couldn't 
dress decently, and she felt it. "One day Mr. 
Crittenden came to me and said it troubled him 
to see her not dressed as well as the others. I 



64 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

told him that she had no money even to pay 
board ; that she couldn't go to church for want 
of clothes. He at once handed me a well-filled 
purse and said, ' Take all you need for her. I 
want her to feel she can do as others do ; get her 
a good dress,' etc. 

" I often went to him for her afterward, and he 
was always ready to help. 

" When she left school and had graduated with 
honor, she said to Mr. CRITTENDEN that she hoped 
to pay him. He told her that if she was ever able 
she might, but the next world would do as well." 

Another friend calls to remembrance Mr. Crit- 
tenden's unerring intuitions concerning the way 
to deal with each scholar who needed discipline. 
He had no general rules ; each case was managed 
by itself, and usually with great success. The 
following, communicated by a pupil of later years, 
is a case in point : 

" The wonderful degree of harmony which for 
so many years existed among so many hundreds 
of teachers and pupils was perhaps directly trace- 
able to him. His tact in the management of those 
under his control was wonderful. As a discipli- 



LAST DAYS OF THE ACADEMY. 65 

iiarian he had few equals. An incident which 
shows superlative delicacy in dealing with what 
seemed difficult cases he once related to me as 
follows : 

" A young girl from the South who was a pupil 
at the Institute was continually in disgrace and 
frequently reported to him by her teachers. One 
day calling her to him in his kind, fatherly way, 
and without charging her with the slightest fault, 
he said, * I do not think, my child, that this is the 
place for you. You do not seem happy here, and 
1 would be very sorry to have you stay and lose 
your time. I do not think you are gaining as you 
should, and it will be better for you to go to some 
other place.' She burst into tears and said, * May 
I try again ? ' ' Nothing would please me better, 
if you wish it,' he replied. 

" She did try, and no further complaint was 
heard. She became a diligent and happy student. 

" In his social life with the students he was 
exceedingly agreeable. He was quick at re- 
partee, and very happy and ready in his choice 
of anecdotes, of which he told many." 

Mr. Crittenden was eminently a peace-maker ; 



66 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

",a soft answer" always turned away his wrath, 
even when his severity was just ; indeed it may 
be said that a saucy one often did the same, pro- 
vided it was bright and witty and not tinctured 
with pertness or insubordination. 

The general religious tone of the school in those 
days was good, especially among the boarders. 
Dr. Spencer watched over them as one who must 
give account for souls, and many a young woman 
who came from a distant home, in order to acquire 
treasures of earthly wisdom carried back with her 
something of still greater value, even the pearl of 
great price. Many of Dr. Spencer's well-known 
" Pastor's Sketches" are drawn from his recollec- 
tions and notes of the conversion of these young 
girls. Mr. CRITTENDEN and his pastor were in 
perfect accord, and there existed between them a 
beautiful and tender friendship, commenced during 
college days, suspended — not broken — by the un- 
timely death of the minister in the flower of his 
usefulness, November 23, 1854. 

One of Dr. Spencer's daughters says of her old 
teacher and friend : " You know our intimacy was 
not exactly like that of teacher and scholar. I can 



LAST DAYS OF THE ACADEMY. 6/ 

only say that as a friend he was ever kind and 
sympathetic. To both himself and his wife I 
could go, and did go, whenever I needed a cheer- 
ing word. Those words came with peculiar kind- 
ness from Mr. Crittenden, and great wisdom in 
advice. He gave to the child what he had re- 
ceived from the father, guidance in perplexity. 
He was with us in that dark hour when our father 
passed away from earth. The scene is just as 
vivid to-day as then, and his own tender grief was 
never forgotten by us children." 

Dr. Crittenden was always extremely particu- 
lar that every member of the school should be 
present at the prayer-service with which every 
session was opened. No excuse for absence was 
accepted ; it was with the greatest difficulty that 
pupils resident in suburban towns or a neighbor- 
ing State and dependent upon public conveyances 
could be considered " permanently excused " in 
such a way as not to lower their standing in 
scholarship or deportment. Even teachers of 
specialties, whose duties did not call them to the 
Institute till the middle of the forenoon, often 
found themselves in the dilemma of losing either 



68 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

time valuable to them in other directions or the 
good opinion of the Principal. 

Some of us who in past days considered the 
stress laid upon this point as bordering upon the 
unreasonable now look back upon it as an earnest 
testimony in favor of religion and a practical com- 
ment upon the text, " In all thy ways acknowledge 
Him" of inestimable value in the moulding of our 
lives. Equally strict was our Principal in enforcing 
proper decorum and appropriate reverence during 
this solemn service ; often have we heard him say 
with a look which said more than the words, 
" Young ladies, ' even the angels veil their faces ; ' 
shall poor miserable mortals come into the divine 
presence with fool's eyes directed to the ends of 
the earth?" 

The Book of Proverbs, by the bye, was ever his 
favorite choice for our morning lesson, and the 
emphasis with which he would read, " Wisdom is 
the principal thing; therefore ^^/ wisdom," will be 
remembered by many who read these pages. 

The first severe personal discipline of his life 
came during these years, in the loss of his little 
Lilly, born after the removal to Brooklyn, and 



LAST DA YS OF THE ACADEMY. 69 

taken into the upper nursery when about eighteen 
months old. All the tenderness of her father's 
peculiarly affectionate nature was touched by this 
bereavement, and never to the day of his death 
could he speak of this little one without a tear in 
his voice. This chastening so affected him as to 
make him a blessed comforter to those afflicted 
like himself, as the family of the writer soon after- 
wards experienced, when on the last day of 185 1 
its household pet was taken away. 

Another serious disappointment awaited him in 
the sudden failure of the health of his eldest 
daughter, which prevented her completing the 
severe course of study necessary for graduation, 
and sent her to the Brattleboro Water Cure at the 
time when her class received their diplomas. 

Mr. Crittenden seems to have been generally 
popular both inside and outside of the school- 
Mistakes he may have sometimes made, and detrac- 
tion can never be entirely escaped by any one in a 
public position ; but the sole official record of the 
time, the Trustees' minutes, bear no traces of them. 
In 1852 Professor Gray left the Academy and 
opened a school of his own, the Brooklyn Heights 



70 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Seminary, now in the hands of Dr. Charles E. 
West. The vacancy thus made in the Faculty was 
filled by the appointment of Darwin G. Eaton, 
who holds a place in the affections of all the teach- 
ers and pupils only second to that of the beloved 
Principal himsell. 

Not a jar or a mist of disagreement ever came 
between these two destined to be united for so 
large a portion of their lives; both strangely 
called to lay down their work and unbuckle their 
armor almost at the same moment. As unlike as 
it is possible to imagine two men, they walked 
thenceforth arm in arm through life ; and only a 
few weeks ago the Professor said to the writer, 

" Never did I have a friend like him; with all 
his pecuHarities, he was to me a brother; yes, 
much more than a brother." 

But the days of the Brooklyn Female Academy, 
so carefully planned, so successfully carried on, 
such a benediction to the city, so full of promise 
for the future, were numbered. The school closed 
the day before Christmas for the usual midwinter 
vacation in perfect order and flourishing condi- 
tion ; but just as the scholars were looking for- 



LAS 7' DAYS OF THE ACADEMY. J I 

ward to reassembling, after the holidays, at eight 
o'clock on the morning of New Year's Day, 1853, 
tongues of flame were seen shooting from crevices, 
clouds of smoke curled out of windows, and in a 
few hours the commodious building, with all its 
furniture, library, laboratory, etc., was a heap 
of smouldering ashes, while from multitudes of 
homes throughout the city went up a pathetic 
wail of sorrow for the lost Alma Mater. 

But no time was wasted in useless wailing by 
either Principal or Trustees. Before the fires 
were fairly subdued, at one o'clock on that event- 
ful New Year's Day, which happened to be Satur- 
day, a meeting of the Board w^as held at the Brook- 
lyn Institute (Lyceum) in Washington Street, "to 
take such action as might be deemed most con- 
ducive to the future interests of the Institution." 
At this meeting the Finance Committee was em- 
powered to engage rooms for the temporary ac- 
commodation of the school in the Brooklyn Insti- 
tute. At the same time the Principal, knowing 
that the occupancy of these could be but tempo- 
rary, was, with his usual indomitable energy, mak- 
ing arrangements for hiring and furnishing two 



72 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

large old mansions, well known to Brooklyn citi- 
zens, farther up the same street. 

Thus not a moment was lost. On Monday 
morning-, at the usual school hour, the shepherd 
gathered his shelterless flock around him, con- 
ducted prayers in the Lyceum hall, dispersed the 
classes as well as he could through the building, 
and saw that the regular recitations were all in 
progress. Never did his perfect power of con- 
trolling others show itself so pre-eminently as 
during those three or four days during which sev- 
eral hundred restless and excitable young girls 
were kept in order and taught in circumstances 
so conducive to the relaxation and destruction of 
all proper discipline. 

Before the week closed one of the old houses was 
ready for occupation, and in a short time the other, 
connected with it by a temporary covered gallery, 
received those pupils who still assembled at the 
Lyceum, and here the Brooklyn Female Academy 
spent the last year of its brief life. The attend- 
ance of course fell off somewhat, as indeed there 
was not room for so many pupils ; but the prosper- 
ity was unabated, and in July a fine class was 



LAST DAYS OF THE ACADEMY. 7$ 

graduated at the Brooklyn Athenseum, where the 
Commencement exercises were held. 

The last meeting of the Trustees of the Brooklyn 
Female Academy was held February 27, 1854, at 
which time the following resolution was passed : 

Resolved, That a final dividend of one hundred and 
fifty-eight -f-^-^ dollars per share be declared and paid 
to the stockholders of this Academy, or the assignees 
thereof, and that a written notice of the same be sent 
by the Finance Committee to such of said stock- 
holders as have not heretofore assigned the surplus of 
said stock to the Packer Collegiate Institute. 

A dividend of $158.63 tells its own story of the 
financial success the Principal had made of the 
Academy. 



74 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 

A Generous Offer — Erection of the Building — Dedication — Golden 
Years — Financial Ability — Principles of Government — Anec- 
dotes. 

A LIFE of the man who in the mind and esti- 
■'■^^ mation of the community is identified with 
the Packer Institute necessarily includes some 
mention of the woman to whose enlightened gen- 
erosity it owes its existence. 

This " lady elect" of God, as we believe for this 
special purpose, a former pupil of the Albany 
Academy, was early left a widow by William S. 
Packer, one of the first Board of Trustees of the 
Brooklyn Female Academy, who showed his com- 
plete confidence in his young wife by leaving the 
control of his large property entirely in her hands. 
Greatly interested in the education of the young, 
Mr. Packer had often expressed a desire to do 
something to promote this object, though he had 
formed no definite plans in regard to it. The 



THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 75 

sudden conflagration of the Brooklyn Female 
Academy seemed to Mrs. Packer to furnish a 
providential opportunity to carry out these wishes 
and build at the same time a fitting memorial 
for her husband. Before the ashes of the old 
building were cold she had signified her intention 
of devoting a large sum to its rebuilding and 
restoration. 

A meeting of the Trustees was held on the 
evening of January 4th, at which was read a note 
from Mrs. Packer stating that " as she had reason 
to believe her late husband had entertained the 
purpose of devoting a sum toward the establish- 
ment of an institution for the education of youth, 
it was her desire as his representative to carry out 
his wishes." The recent destruction of the build- 
ing of the Female Academy by fire afforded her an 
opportunity which she was glad to embrace, and 
she closed her note by informally offering to de- 
vote the munificent sum of sixty-five thousand 
dollars for the erection of an institution for the in- 
struction of her own sex in the higher branches of 
education. It is needless to say that this generous 
offer was gladly accepted. 



'^6 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

The Trustees resolved to dissolve the corpora- 
tion of the Brooklyn Female Academy and apply 
its stock to the founding of the High School for 
boys, afterwards known as the Polytechnic Insti- 
tute. Application was at once made and a grant 
secured for the incorporation of a girls' academy 
under the name of the Packer Collegiate Institute, 
March 19, 1853. 

On May 4th the generous originator of the 
scheme received a copy of the act of incorpora- 
tion, which she acknowledged by another note to 
the Trustees, in which she reiterated her offer in 
due form and expressed " heartfelt thanks for the 
honor bestowed upon the memory of her husband 
in giving the Institution his name." 

The large sum which the young widow thus 
put out of her own possession amounted to sixty- 
five thousand dollars ; " a part of which consisted 
of the grounds and building materials purchased 
of the Brooklyn Female Academy for the sum of 
thirty-eight thousand dollars." 

Plans of various kinds were at once submitted 
to both the Trustees and Mrs. Packer, Dr. CRIT- 
TENDEN of course taking the greatest interest and 



THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 77 

offering invaluable suggestions. It was greatly 
desired by all concerned that the building should 
be, as Mrs. Packer expressed it, " one with accom- 
modations sufficiently ample to provide for the 
realization of our most sanguine hopes, and whose 
style and general appearance would correspond 
with the character and grade of the school there 
established. I have thought," she wrote, "that it 
might tell favorably upon the success of the Insti- 
tution if the building itself were a kind of token or 
pledge of the refined and elevated influences to be 
found within its walls — a pledge I am sure the 
good management of the Trustees with the bless- 
ing of a Higher Power would be able to redeem." 

Dr. Crittenden fully agreed with Mrs. Pack- 
er's enlightened and far-reaching views ; but the 
Trustees were cautious and hesitated to accept 
plans " to carry out which might involve the Insti- 
tution and perhaps materially impair its useful- 
ness ;" but again the generous patroness came to 
the rescue. In another note addressed to the 
Trustees on May 13th she says: 

" I would not have been so decided in favor of 
Mr. Lefevre's plans had I not first determined to 



78 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

hold myself in readiness to relieve the Institution 
should it become seriously embarrassed. I hope 
no such necessity will occur. But if after a suffi- 
cient trial the income of the Institution should be 
found inadequate to provide liberally for its own 
expenses and make also such provision for a sink- 
ing fund as to afford a reasonable prospect of ulti- 
mately cancelling the debt, I will engage to add 
to my donation such sum as may be necessary for 
this object to the amount of twenty thousand 
dollars." A document was added in which the 
writer bound herself, her heirs, executors, adminis- 
trators, and assigns, to fulfil this voluntary engage- 
ment. , 

Thanks to the wisdom with which the pecuni- 
ary afifairs of the Packer Institute have always 
been carried on, and its unexampled prosperity, 
the additional donation was never claimed ; but 
none the less honor is due to the woman who 
voluntarily offered eighty-five thousand dollars for 
the elevation and culture of her own sex. Mr. 
Crittenden thought so, and the tie which bound 
him to her through life was one of mingled re- 
spect, gratitude, and fatherly affection ; while on 



THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 79 

her part love, esteem, and reverence have outlived 
even his personal presence in our midst. 

The way was now open for the erection of the 
finest building exclusively devoted to female edu- 
cation which the world had at that period seen, 
for Vassar only existed in the cloudland of its 
founder's fancies, and Wellesley was an idea uncon- 
ceived. Mrs. Packer, Mr. Crittenden, and Pro- 
fessor Eaton were not the people to allow an en- 
terprise like this to languish. Money was not 
spared ; the best plans were chosen, the best 
architects secured, the best heating and ventilat- 
ing arrangements then known adopted, the 
handsomest and most durable school-furniture 
provided, and the laboratory, which Professor 
Eaton was wont to call his " kitchen," built under 
his own eye and well stocked with chemicals, 
minerals, and apparatus of all kinds. 

Mr. Crittenden was the life and centre of all 
the delightful confusion and busy stir. His active 
brain planned and his strong will secured execu- 
tion ; his habits of economy and his thorough 
business capacity prevented waste and saved 
money for the most available purposes. In a 



80 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

sense the beautiful Phoenix which arose so rapidly 
from its own ashes was created by him and cre- 
atfed for him : what wonder, then, that the Institu- 
tion became to him as the years went on his hobby 
and idol ; a bona dea to which all selfish aims were 
subordinated ? What wonder that it was hard for 
him to realize the progressiveness of domestic 
science, or to allow that any improvements save 
those of artistic ornamentation could be added to 
the "thing of beauty" which was his "joy for- 
ever" ? 

The building, beautiful and complete in its ap- 
pointments, was finished by the close of the sum- 
mer vacation, and gave great satisfaction to all 
concerned. If some of the " old girls" missed the 
light and homely cheerfulness of the old Academy 
and thought that in some parts of the building 
grandeur was conducive to gloom, we were soon 
reconciled to the change, and learned to take 
almost as much pride in our beautiful Institution 
as our Principal did. On the second Monday in 
September, 1854, the Packer Institute was opened 
for pupils; but the solemn services of dedication 
were not held until the evening of November 9th. 



THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 8 1 

On this occasion the spacious and beautiful 
Gothic chapel, capable of seating one thousand 
people, was crowded to its utmost capacity, the 
aisles being filled with seats and standing multi- 
tudes thronging the doors and lobbies: a state of 
things, by the bye, which constantly reproduced 
itself at every public entertainment of which that 
chapel was the scene. The galleries were filled 
with pupils, and multitudes of their friends were 
unable to obtain admission. 

The ceremonies were opened with prayer, after 
which a richlj-embellished and costly copy of the 
Bible was presented to the institution by Edward 
A. Lambert, mayor of the city, who accompanied 
his gift with an appropriate address, to which the 
President of the Board of Trustees, G. G. Van 
Wagenen, Esq., made a suitable reply. 

The following ode, written by Miss Abby D. 
Woodbridge, a pupil in the Albany and a teacher 
in the Brooklyn Female Academy, was sung : 



82 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Ode. 

Oh ! glad should be our song to-night 
As that which filled the mighty fane 

"When Hebrews waved the censer bright. 
And swelled the loud exultant strain. 

Like them we mourned the wasting fire 

Which made our shrine a funeral pyre ; 
Like theirs it rose again ! 

This " latter house" is very fair, 
Its beauty on our hearts is shed ; 

Its name we'll ever keep with care, 
It speaks the living and the dead ! 

Oh ! 'twas in truth a gracious deed, 

The sowing of this precious seed 
For the soul's daily bread. 

To Thee, great Source of life and light, 
Kind guardian of each youthful heart 

Who here shall seek that second sight 
Which wisdom only can impart, — 

For all that makes the soul more pure, 

That nerves the spirit to endure, — 
This place is set apart. 

'Tis set apart for all that bids 

New thought awake, new purpose live ; 

For earth's young flowers, whose dewy lids 
Shut half their sweetness and half give. 

Here may the plants of grace abound, 

And on this consecrated ground 
May woman learn to live! 

The President then formally declared the 
building to be specially set apart for the uses 



THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 83 

for which it was designed, and addressed the 
audience. 

Rev. Dr. Francis Vinton's magnificent address 
upon "■ Female Education" was then delivered. 
This, having been printed at the time, is within 
the reach of all our readers. It is a fine presenta- 
tion of the principles underlying all education, and 
their modifications when applied to girls. It 
speaks of the educational improvements which 
society has recently developed, and using the 
beautiful new building as an example thereof, 
closes with a succinct history of its foundation and 
an eloquent tribute to its founder. 

The names of the Board of Trustees as they 
stood on the night of the opening were : 
G. G. Van Wagenen, J. H. Prentice, 
A. B. Baylis, a. W. Benson, 

C. P. Smith, A. A. Low, 

J. Sullivan Thorne, Peter Balen, 
O. H. Gordon, Loomis Ballard, 

Peter C. Cornell, B. D. Silliman, 
J. W. Harper, J. M. Van Cott, 

David Coope. 
At least four of these followed the Principal to 



84 ALONZO CRITTENDEISr. 

his last resting-place and are still standing man- 
fully at their posts. 

And now followed thirty golden years; years on 
the afternoon side of life, often checkered by 
shadows, replete with golden harvests, but full of 
seed-sowing still. Mr. Crittenden never seemed 
to grow old ; constant association with the young 
was to him a perpetual fountain of youth: his 
step was as light at seventy as it had been at 
seventeen ; his eye never lost its clear vision, his 
ear its keen sensitiveness to every sound. Some 
of the girls often wished it would. His executive 
ability strengthened with the years, and it was 
only towards the very last that he could be in- 
duced to lay a few of the cares of government 
upon other shoulders and entrust them to other 
hands. 

Dr. Crittenden was a rare example of a man 
who had reached the goal of his ambition. He 
would rather have stood at the head of those hun- 
dreds of girls and their teachers than to have 
filled any position of public emolument or trust 
within the gift of government or society. It is 



THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 8^ 

therefore matter of congratulation to his old 
friends that he was able in spite of advanced age 
and always delicate health to hold his position to 
the last, and finally to die in harness. 

His success in life was not due merely to his 
scholarship or literary ability ; his more effective 
qualifications were power of discrimination, wis- 
dom in selection, and business capacity. The 
friend already several times quoted says : 

" Mr. Crittenden certainly made the school a 
financial success. Beginning the Packer Institute 
with a floating debt of $20,000 and a mortgage of 
$40,000, he left it free from debt and enriched by 
greatly increased facilities and a comfortable little 
sum of $30,000 invested." 

The new institution rapidly filled with students^ 
and soon the class-rooms were overflowing. Often 
over eight hundred names were enrolled in one 
year, and the teachers multiplied rapidly. In such 
circumstances the governing power of the Prin- 
cipal stands out conspicuously. 

Entirely self-reliant himself, Dr. Crittenden 
always expected his teachers to be equally so j 
each sovereign in her own department, as he was 



S6 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

wont to express it. She was expected to govern 
by her own inherent force of character, and only 
in the last extreme was an appeal to higher au- 
thority encouraged ; although when such a step 
was resorted to it always received a prompt re- 
sponse and the teacher's authority was ably sup- 
ported. A great weight of responsibility was thus 
thrown upon the younger teachers ; but the plan 
worked remarkably well in the general discipline 
of the school. 

Also it was his pet boast that the Institution 
" governed itself ;" " no bells, no rules, as in a 
common school." Once an English visitor, ad- 
miring the complete appointments of the Packer 
and the perfect discipline of its population, asked 
him what rules he had. 

" None," he answered ; " they are not needed. 
These young women are ladies ; they know what 
to do by instinct." 

A hobby of Dr. Crittenden's, which as the 
years passed by became almost a mania, was his 
unwillingness to dismiss the school for a day or 
abridge its sessions for an hour for any reasons 
whatever. Until Washington's birthday was de- 



THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 8/ 

Glared a legal holiday there was for years an an- 
nual contest between the Principal and the school 
concerning its observance. " When you can dis- 
cover the date of Martha Washington's birthday," 
he would say, " I promise you a holiday upon that 
occasion." 

A bright young girl once undertook to write to 
Edward Everett for information upon the subject, 
but she never succeeded in establishing the anx- 
iously-desired date. 

On Election-day, observed as a whole or partial 
holiday by the public schools, he would say, 
" What do you girls want a holiday for ? Are you 
going to the polls?" 

It was the same with all pubhc holidays; even 
Sunday-school anniversaries, picnics, and the like ; 
in fact, no teacher was allowed to excuse a pupil 
for any fraction of school time without a written 
note from her parent or guardian. Good Friday 
and Thanksgiving-day, with the Friday following, 
were the only exceptions to this rule ; a somewhat 
remarkable fact, since Presbyterians in those early 
days were not wont to observe church holidays. 

Another point on which Dr. Crittenden laid 



■88 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

great stress was the impropriety of allowing a 
pupil to report herselt either as to attendance, de- 
portment, or proficiency in preparation. " It 
was," he said, " a premium on lying," and on no 
other occasions was his displeasure towards the 
teachers so strongly shown or expressed as when 
they were found guilty of violating this order. 

" Success is the test of ability," was one of his 
favorite mottoes ; a hard one to some of the younger 
teachers struggling with the difficulties of govern- 
ing undisciplined girls full of high animal spirits, 
and in many instances not much their juniors. 
But its application proved its wisdom, and " abil- 
ity" was cultivated by the necessity for "success." 

In fact, under his administration his whole sys- 
tem worked well, and the smoothness with which 
the wheels revolved which moved this vast aggre- 
gation of eight hundred souls was the astonish- 
ment of all beholders. 

As in the early days, so now, " composition" was 
Dr. Crittenden's favorite study. Those who 
wrote well, especially those gifted with powers ot 
versification, always held a high place in his estima- 
tion and a warm one in his heart. He was fond 



,THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 89 

of entertainments, especially if the matter of the 
dialogues, songs, etc., was of original composition ; 
and the brilliant success of the Packer entertain- 
ments is matter of history. He liked to have 
poems of welcome written when distinguished 
visitors were expected at the institution, obitu- 
aries, Christmas greetings, and the like. He once 
said of a teacher whose usefulness was apparently 
on the wane, but who was ready at this sort of 
thing, "We must keep her, because she brings 
so much honor to the Institution." 

Dr. Crittenden's jealous care of the property 
of the Institution will be remembered by many of 
the pupils, one of whom recalled recently a re- 
mark of his concerning some Vandal unknown who 
had defaced the wall with pencil-marks. 

" That young lady is on the road to Blackwell's 
Island ; she 7nay never get there, but I wouldn't 
like to take her chances." 

Of the sentimental nonsense which existed, or 
was supposed to exist, between the elder pupils 
and the young gentlemen of the Polytechnic, 
whom they naturally met in their progress to and 
from school, he was exceedingly intolerant, and on 



90 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

one occasion politely marshalled two young col- 
legians between the serried ranks of six hundred 
girls in the chapel, where they were shown to 
seats of honor on the platform and compelled to 
stand the fire of eyes for a full hour. 

Yet no such kindly and genial sympathy was 
ever found in the heart of an elder for the real 
"affairs of the heart" of his young friends. It was 
a pleasure to consult him, and those who did so 
were sure alike of shrewd, sensible advice and of 
both sympathy and secrecy. He delighted in 
weddings, and his gifts upon such occasions were 
always beautiful, costly, and Avell chosen. To- 
wards the inane giggling so dear to the hearts of 
school-girls he had a special antipathy, calling it 
'* the crackling of thorns under a pot," while those 
who did not attend to what was going on in class 
or chapel were, he said, sending their " fool's eyes 
to the ends of the earth." 

Every old pupil will remember how frequently 
he quoted, " A word to the wise is sufficient ; but 
you may bray a fool in a mortar, yet will his 
foolishness not depart from him." 

Dr. Crittenden was always very strict in de- 



THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE. 9 1 

manding that those pupils who held scholarships, 
or were for any reason " free scholars," should 
make the most of their opportunities and be faith- 
ful in obedience to rules. If any of them were 
caught in the little escapades or instances of re- 
sistance to authority common to school life, woe 
betide them. Some of the more sensitive girls 
felt this very much ; and it sometimes required 
special exercise of that tact which was his peculiar 
gift to adjust matters. The following is an illus- 
tra^^ion : 

A young lady holding a scholarship was some- 
what remiss, and the teacher of her department 
chided her, intimating that she expected better 
things from one in her position. The pupil was 
indignant, thinking that she was considered a 
charity scholar, and her father came to complain. 
Dr. Crittenden received him pohtely, and, re- 
ferring to certain rumors then prevalent, said, 

"Well, Mr. Smith, will there be war?" 

"That depends upon the construction you put 
on things," he replied. 

"That's just it," said Dr. Crittenden. "The 
teacher said to your daughter, ' considering your 



92 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

position ;' you say, as an object of charity ; we say, 
as a princess — one so distinguished above her 
classmates as to receive a scholarship; one who 
we had a right to expect would do better than 
the others." 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 93 



CHAPTER VI. 

TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 

Quick Intuition — Constancy of Friendship — Revivalist — Unlimit- 
ed Power of Forgiveness — Story of Two Sisters — Judicious 
Charity — Repartee — Illustrations. 

T~\R. CRITTENDEN'S many idiosyncrasies of 
character came conspicuously to the surface 
during these days. He sometimes seemed to be 
more largely governed by prejudices or perhaps 
one might say by intuitions, than by reason and a 
calm weighing of the facts of a case. But his in- 
tuitions were usually unerring, and his prejudices 
made him a firm and lifelong friend of those to 
whom he had taken a fancy, and towards whom he 
spared no personal pains when he could be of ser- 
vice to them. Occasionally he seemed to be severe, 
especially in what he said at the teachers' meet- 
ings. But once when he had been most strictly 
holding us to the mark we discovered that he had 
been exerting his utmost influence with the Trustees 
to secure a rise of ten per cent on all our salaries — 



94 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

greatly lessened in practical value by the inflation 
of currency at the close of the war. 

There are some men of whom it is said " you 
always know where to find them." There was 
sometimes an exciting uncertainty where to find 
our old friend, which terminated in pleasing dis- 
appointment. 

On one occasion a noted revivalist with whom 
she had become acquainted paid a teacher a visit 
in her school-room. Her own action, seen from a 
distance, she now feels to have been wholly unjus- 
tifiable, completely out of order, and one that 
might have involved the school in serious conse- 
quences. When the excitement consequent upon 
the personal conversation which she allowed her 
visitor to have with each of her pupils (very young 
ones) was reported to her superior and he sent to 
demand an explanation, she was really afraid to 
answer the call except by a written account of the 
whole scene. She waited in some trepidation for 
a second summons ; when entering the room where 
the Principal sat, he put out his hand kindly and 
said, pointing to her letter, which he had evidently 
just read, " I don't understand this thing; were it 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 95 

repeated it might get us into trouble ; but I shan't 
interfere with it. If children cry because they 
have told lies and broken rules and not studied 
their lessons, those are good things to cry about ; 
but I wouldn't let it happen again." 

The Doctor, however, was always very glad to 
encourage all religious movements which did not 
interfere with legitimate school discipline and 
duties. Prayer-meetings were often conducted in 
the different rooms both before and after school 
hours ; and so long as everything was done " de- 
cently and in order" he was very glad that it 
should be so. 

To about this period belongs a personal inci- 
dent which is a very sweet memory. A member 
of the school had written a little Christmas poem 
which was beautifully read by the Reading 
Teacher, the late lamented Mrs. Perkins, at morn- 
ing prayers, when the services rather partook of 
the nature of a celebration. 

When, during the morning, the author entered 
the office, Mr. Crittenden thanked her warmly 
for it, and, referring especially to its very subjec- 
tive character, said. 



96 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

" Do you always feel that way ? I would give 
the world if I could." 

One of the old teachers writes : 

" Mr. Crittenden seemed to have unlimited 
power of forgiveness. I think he never harbored 
a small personal grudge, and so little did he dwell 
upon personal slights that they soon passed out 
of his memory; and I have many a time known 
him positively to forget that certain people had 
ever manifested an unkind spirit towards him. 
Nobody could be more generous than he was in 
repairing an injustice on his own part which had 
injured another person's feelings. He had also a 
most generous appreciation of faithful service 
which he recognized as such. He did not always 
know how faithful some teachers were, but he was 
open to conviction where a disinterested party 
would plead their cause." 

An instance of this occurred at one time in con- 
nection with a drawing teacher whom he had sup- 
posed guilty of want of care of the drawings, casts, 
etc., provided for the department. With his usual 
jealous care for the property of the Institute, he 
spoke quite sharply to her in the presence of her 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 9/ 

scholars. The writer of the above extract took 
pains to make him understand how peculiarly 

careful Miss B had been of the articles in 

question, patching up torn copies and cleaning con- 
demned casts. At once he ran up the five flights 
of stairs, and before another class of girls said, 

" Miss B , it gives me great pleasure to see 

your care for the preservation of the models and 
drawings entrusted to you ; you set a good ex- 
ample to all your associates." 

During the next summer vacation Dr. Critten- 
den, hearing that Miss B was boarding in the 

Berkshire Hills, not far from himself and his fam- 
ily, drove over to the village, took the young lady 
and her sister a long drive, brought them home to 
dinner, entertained them through the day, and 
drove them home again by moonlight, " feeling," 

he said, " that he ought to pay Miss B some 

attention." 

The Principal's intense devotion to the Insti- 
tution has already been noted. He seemed to 
look upon it almost as if endowed with a soul, to 
whom others as well as himself were bound to sac- 
rifice themselves. 



98 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

But wherever school interests did not come 
into competition, Dr. Crittenden was the most 
considerate, sympathetic, and helpful of personal 
friends. He never lost his interest in his old pu- 
pils, and looked upon their success in life as per- 
sonal triumphs. His delight over a successful 
poem or story or book was intense. On more 
than one occasion he has fondled a little bantling- 
of a former graduate as though it were a veritable 
grandchild. 

Nor was his sympathy confined to words, as 
more than one case where sickness and poverty 
came to some of his proteges can testify. Memory 
recalls the story of two sisters, members of the 
graduating class in one of the early years of the 
Packer, the elder of whom was attacked with 
hemorrhage of the lungs during one of his recita- 
tions. Dr. Crittenden at once took her home in 
a carriage, and, a little later, sent her South at 
his own expense. Her disease proved to be old- 
fashioned consumption, and during her four or five 
years of gradual fading away he took not only her- 
self but her whole family under his especial pro- 
tection, sending her to the South every winter 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 99 

establishing her widowed mother in a boarding- 
house, and giving the second sister the position of 
book-keeper in the Institute. 

And when the fatal disease attacked the younger 
of the two, he continued to befriend both herself 
and her mother, till the grave had put an end to 
all necessity for befriending either. In the pecu- 
niary parts of this enterprise he was assisted large- 
ly by Mr. Abraham Baylis and other friends, but 
the thoughtfulness and care-taking came from his 
own kind heart. 

Mr. Crittenden was a liberal giver of money ; 
but he gave more than that : he gave personal ser- 
vice, sparing neither pains, time, nor fatigue, and 
exerting himself to interest others in the objects of 
his care. This was perhaps one of his chief ways 
of doing good. , He found many ready to give as- 
sistance to cases once brought fairly to their no- 
tice, and thus was able to accomplish a great deal 
more than by his own unaided efforts would have 
been possible. Among those always ready to lis- 
ten to such appeals and to respond generously to 
the calls presented was Mr. A. A. Low, now and 
for many years President of the Board of Trustees. 

L. •f c. 



lOO ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Many a girl who would otherwise have been 
obliged to leave the school before her educational 
course was completed was by Mr. Low's generos- 
ity enabled to continue her attendance and secure 
the diploma which enabled her afterwards to fill 
an honorable and lucrative position. 

The case of the young artist Frederick Bridg- 
man is in point here. Bridgman was a Richmond 
boy, and Mr. CRITTENDEN was at first interested 
in him as a fellow-townsman. He, however, early 
recognized the exceeding promise of the young 
artist, encouraged his endeavors, and introduced 
him to the notice of Mr. Low and other gentle- 
men, who, in conjunction with himself, provided 
the means to defray his expenses to Europe, and 
to support him while studying there. 

On the return of Bridgman for a short visit to 
his own country, a reception was given by Dr. 
Crittenden to the already distinguished artist, 
and his early friends felt themselves more than 
repaid for their kindness. The grateful young 
man never forgot it. Several of his letters have 
been found among Dr. Crittenden's few pre- 
served papers ; they were written in Paris and 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 10 1 

contain many grateful reminiscences. Many allu- 
sions to the receipt and sale of Bridgman's pictures 
occur in the family correspondence. 

The following was written upon the receipt of 
the news of Mrs. Crittenden's death, and a much 
longer letter of condolence was sent to Mr. Ed- 
ward Crictenden after that of his father, which, 
as it refers to some family matters, can hardly 
be inserted here : 

75 Bond Street, Paris, June 2, 1S82. 
My Dear Mr. Crittenden: 

If in only a few words, we must tell you how deeply 
we feel the loss of one so dear to you all, and how 
much we appreciate your having written so soon, 
which was a proof that we were among the first in 
your mind, though so far away. 

F. A. Bridgman. 

Dr. Crittenden exerted himself constantly to 
procure scholarships for those whose talents and 
character promised to make them of use in the 
world and an honor to the Institution. In cases 
where a change of family circumstances rendered 
it impossible for a faithful and ambitious pupil to 
complete the prescribed course, he managed in 
some way to have her do so, either inducing the 



I02 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Trustees to cancel the unpaid bills, or paying the 
arrears himself, or, as frequently happened, calling 
Mr. Low's attention to the case, etc.; sometimes 
taking the girls into his own family, where they 
were considered guests. Indeed, that hospitable 
household always numbered among its members 
one or more inmates whose only claims upon it 
were need of its hospitality. 

The following little anecdotes have been sent in 
as illustrative of the ready wit and quickness at 
repartee which was at all times one of Mr. Crit- 
tenden's distinguishing characteristics : 

To a person who asked if there were no eleva- 
tors in the Institute, he answered, " Yes, madam ; 
each pupil is provided with two." 

To the president of a gas company who said 
there were complaints against the Institute, he 
replied, " Indeed ! Did you ever hear of a com- 
plaint against your corporation ?" 

To a physician who wrote to inquire if reduc- 
tion in tuition would be made to his profession as 
well as to clergymen, he replied that he regretted 
to say that reduction was made only to those who 
preached, not to those who practised. 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. IO3 

The following testimonials, which have been 
contributed by some of his old teachers and 
friends, tell their own story of the appreciation 
which those who worked with him had of their 
Principal : 

" For half a century I have known and respected 
Mr. Crittenden, having been his pupil, his asso- 
ciated teacher, and for many years his friend and 
neighbor. In all these relations he was at all times 
true and steadfast. 

" As an educator, his ideas of the dignity of wo- 
manhood made him insist upon a course of study 
which was much in advance of his age. He was 
blessed with an amount of tact and personal mag- 
netism which enabled him to awaken the youthful 
mind, teach it to think and arouse it to action. 
He cultivated not only the intellect, but the con- 
science and the heart, making his pupils fear to 
think an unholy or impure thought. 

" Many of his pupils, through his generous pecu- 
niary aid, were helped to an advanced education ; 
and they have done good work for the Master 
whom he loved. 

" As a principal, Mr. Crittenden was greatly 



104 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

respected by his associate teachers. His encour- 
agement and sympathy were never wanting. If 
they were successful, he usually permitted them to 
pursue their own methods ; but if they needed ad- 
vice and direction, he gave it with kindness and 
consideration. He was faithful himself, and ex- 
acted the same service for his assistants. 

" For almost a quarter of a century we con- 
stantly met as friends and neighbors, and never 
could such be gentler, kinder, more sympathizing 
than he. I am thankful for his long life of useful- 
ness, and thankful for his death ; for he has gone 
to the reward of those who serve for the love of 
Christ and in his name." 

Another says : 

" Mr. Crittenden was one of my kindest, best 
friends, and I have very much to remember of the 
•courage and happiness he has given to my life. 
Our intercourse was always of such a personal 
nature that I do not feel I can recall anything fit- 
ted for a public memorial, glad as I am that such 
is being prepared." 

Still another old pupil who has kindly responded 
to the call for reminiscences says : 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 10$ 

" The debt of love and gratitude I owe to Dr. 
Crittenden is very great; for him I shall ever 
cherish affectionate remembrance, and hold his 
memory in highest honor. My youthful admira- 
tion of him was sustained by the judgment of ma- 
turer yeara. His most prominent characteristic 
impressed upon my mind was his strong love of 
truth and scorn of anything approaching deceit or 
hypocrisy. The enthusiastic love of truth and 
goodness because they were beautiful and right in 
themselves which he felt, he inspired his pupils to 
feel ; and this alone places him in the front rank of 
the moral educators of the day. While most sin- 
cere in condemning an offence, he was even more 
tender in his forgiveness when penitence was sin- 
cere; and if he erred by too hasty a judgment, he 
was quite as ready to retract and make amends by 
extraordinary kindness." 

Speaking of his father's general popularity and 
wide acquaintance, Mr. Edward Crittenden says : 

" It seemed impossible for my father t9 go any- 
where without finding friends. I have known per- 
sons to call within a short time after his arriving 
at a place hundreds of miles from home, and insist 



I06 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

upon his going to their houses. And in business 
I meet persons who say, ' Your father educated 
my wife ' (or daughter). I am often asked, 

" ' Are you the son of Dr. Crittenden of the 
Packer ? ' ' Oh, yes, we all know him.' 

" In Dresden, father, in passing two or three 
young girls, saw them nudging each other, and 
overheard them saying, * Mr. Crittenden.' " 

From the same source comes also the following 
pleasant little incident of travel : 

" At church, in London, my father was politely 
offered a seat by a lady who asked if he were not 
an American; said she had been delighted with 
the writings of an American clergyman. Rev. Dr. 
Sprague. ' He was my former pastor at Albany,' 
answered my father. ' And then,' continued the 
lady, * there is a charming book by another Ameri- 
can clergyman, " A Pastor's Sketches," ' * Yes, 
madam ; Dr. Spencer is my present pastor in 
Brooklyn.' The lady was surprised, and more so 
when, i^^ speaking of Dr. Todd, she was told that 
he and my father were old friends, and had been 
born in the same town and county." 

A pupil of those days says of her old teacher : 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 10/ 

" From the time I entered the Institute, in 1874, 
to the time of his death, his fatherly interest in 
and tender kindness toward me never ceased. I 
never failed to find in him a true friend and a wise 
and judicious adviser. It was his pride and de- 
light to see and watch the progress and assist in 
the development of a pure and lofty type of wo- 
manhood. I cannot tell you in words how much 
I value his influence as a teacher. 

" When visiting the classes in literature he was 
especially pleased to find students able to give 
quotations from some of the earlier English 
authors whose works are now comparatively little 
studied. On one occasion he called for something 
from George Herbert. One 3'oung lady chanced 
to repeat, 

" ' A servant with this clause 
Makes drudgery divine ; 
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws 
Makes that and th' action fine.' 

Which more than pleased him." 

Mr. Crittenden's faithful friendship for his for- 
mer pupils is finely illustrated by the following 
note written to one of them during a protracted 



I08 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

illness. A gift of the little volumes " Words of 
Jesus" and " Faithful Promiser," which accom- 
panied the note, is alluded to therein : 

March 8, 1871. 

My Dear Friend: Many thanks for your note, and 
more for the charming poem on prayer. In such a 
state you cannot be, I trust, very unhappy. I have 
all day till now anticipated the pleasure of seeing you 
this P.M., but as it has commenced raining, I send 
you more comforting " words" than I could speak, 
and "promises" that He alone who is both able and 
faithful has given to you and to me. I shall hope to 
see you the first pleasant afternoon. Till then fare- 
well. May God bless and keep you is the prayer of 
Your friend, 

A. Critteden. 

Of the same nature is the following, kindly fur- 
nished by another old scholar, who says : *' This 
letter beautifully illustrates the ever-ready sym- 
path}'^ which was one of the most lovely elements 
in the character which made him pre-eminently 
useful and successful in his profession" : 

Lee, Mass., August 9, 1875. 

My Dear Friend: Your letter of the 2d was re- 
ceived last night. 

God is too wise to err, too good needlessly to afflict. 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. IO9 

Sickness, desolation of soul, and outward afflictions 
have all their treasures, though often hidden in dark- 
ness. But we need not pass through them unblessed. 

You have a right to mourn the loss of a kind and 
loving father, and I am glad to know that you can saj--,^ 
" Thy will be done;" " I would not call him back." 

What a consolation it is to you now that you feel 
no remorse in consequence of a single word or act 
that gave him pain ! May we all thus live, and so- 
fulfil the law of love ! 

The Lord bless you and keep you in peace ! 
As ever your friend, 

A. Crittenden. 

The following resume of character given by one 
who knew her subject well during these golden 
years, but who desires to be nameless, is a faithful 
picture of the man who stood at the head of the 
Packer Institute in his ripened age : 

" You ask me to jot down some impressions and 
reminiscences of our dear friend, Dr. Critten- 
den. I first knew him as a pupil, and afterwards 
more intimately as a friend, during his long resi- 
dence in Brooklyn. 

" His enthusiastic devotion to his profession was 
always from first to last most noticeable, and I 
think his great success as an instructor was chief- 
ly due to this. His influence over his pupils 



no ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

was both stimulating and inspiring. He had a 
happy faculty of making his classes think for 
themselves, often throwing aside the text-book 
and discussing with them the subject under con- 
sideration independently. 

*' He was quick to discover any special gift or 
talent, and many a girl since well known in litera- 
ture received from him her first encouraging im- 
pulse. There was something beautiful in his affec- 
tionate interest in those long under his care. Each 
graduating class was the best. They were to him 
' daughters every one,' as he expressed it the last 
time he presented a class to the President for diplo- 
mas. This rare insight into character was of great 
advantage in the selection of teachers, as witness 
the long roll of accomplished women of rare and 
varied attainments who were for a longer or 
shorter time associated with him in the three insti- 
tutions over which he presided for more than fifty 
3' ears. 

"These traits belonged to Dr. Crittenden's 
professional character, but it required the ac- 
quaintance and friendship of years to appreciate 
his rare geniality of disposition and his real be- 



TRAITS OF CHARACTER. Ill 

nevolence of heart. Especially was this shown to 
former teachers or pupils whom sickness or mis- 
fortune had overtaken. They instinctively came 
to him, and he recognized their appeal as a claim 
upon his time, his purse, and his tenderest sympa- 
thy. No amount of personal trouble was too 
great if he could thereby do them a service. In- 
deed, I have rarely met his equal in this respect. 
He never considered the tax upon his time and 
strength when he could render a service to a 
friend. Touching instances come to my memory 
but they are too numerous, and I cannot particu- 
larize. Their record is above, where faithfulness 
to earthly trusts is accounted worthy of great rec- 
ompense of reward." 



112 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 



CHAPTER Vll. 

SHADOW AND SUNSHINE. 

War Record — Ph.D. — European Trip — His Daughter's Death — 
The Silver Wedding. 

'T^HE most important public event which oc- 
curred during Mr. Crittenden's long life 
was the Civil War of 1861-65. As his attitude 
during this trying period has been somewhat criti- 
cised, it may be well for a moment to touch upon 
issues which are fortunately things of the past. 

Always a consistent Democrat, an admirer of 
Southern chivalry, generosity, and hospitality, 
a believer in States' rights within certain limits, 
and a conservative advocate of submission to the 
powers that be, he held during the stormy years 
that preceded the open declaration of hostilities 
a position extremely liable to misconstruction, and 
to which many did not hesitate in the heated pas- 
sion of after-times to apply- the name of copperhead. 
Looking back, however, through the clarifying 
lights of twenty intervening years, it is easy to 



SHADOW AND SUNSHINE. II3 

see that one simple principle guided all his 
thoughts and actions throughout these perplex- 
ing times— obedience to law. So long as the law 
and government stood, or seemed to stand, upon 
the side of the unpopular Southern institution 
which had become a root of bitterness in the 
community, he persistently discouraged the in- 
troduction of the bitter root into his classes or 
his intercourse with others. But when the ad- 
vocates of that institution had raised the stand- 
ard of rebellion and thus put themselves and it 
without the pale of legal protection, it became 
the obligation of good citizenship to support with 
voice, money, and something dearer still the gov- 
ernment to which he owed allegiance. 

In this there was nothing of the nature of time- 
service, and his judicious and persistent conduct 
saved the Institute, at that time somewhat depen- 
dent upon Southern patronage, from the evils 
which violent partisanship might have wrought. 

A little incident which occurred just before the 
firing upon Fort Sumter seems pertinent. 

A young friend occupying a position in the 
"school at the time said impulsively, 



114 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

*' Mr. Buchanan is an old grandmother." 
" Hush, my child," said the Principal, very 
gravely ; " * the powers that be are ordained of 
God ; ' to speak slightingly of them is irreverence 
to Him. I hope never again to hear such words 
from your lips," 

" My father," says the son who was one with 
him in opinion, " though not a partisan, was a 
Democrat in politics. When no important issue 
seemed to be involved in an election he voted for 
the candidate whom he considered the best man,, 
without regard to party. I have known him to 
refuse to vote for a candidate of either party be- 
cause he knew and could ascertain nothing about 
him. On the question of slavery, he esteemed the 
institution an evil, but one concerning which, 
under the Constitution, neither the government 
nor any free State had anything to do. He was 
unequivocally a Union man. He thought the 
States had rights that the general government 
had no business to meddle with, and in the ex 
citement which followed upon the firing upon 
Sumter the expression of such [opinion was by 
some deemed disloyalty." 



SHADOW AND SUNSHINE. II5 

From that crisis, however, no one could doubt 
the loyalty of the Principal and all engaged in 
the Institution. The attitude taken and main- 
tained throughout the war was unmistakable. 
Political partisanship was not encouraged in a 
community most of whose members neither were 
nor expected to be enfranchised citizens ; but wo- 
man's war-work was carried on : lint was scraped, 
bandages rolled, " comfort-bags" prepared, and 
stockings knit, even within those sacred precincts 
devoted to more masculine pursuits ; the rules 
which forbade the introduction of such femi- 
ninities into chapel, class-rooms, and recitations 
being, with the full approbation of the Principal, 
relaxed in favor of the defenders of our Union. 
Red, white, and blue were as conspicuously dis- 
played in the Packer Institute as elsewhere in 
the city ; its windows were as often illuminated ; 
entertainments were given for the benefit of the 
sufferers on both sides, and at the great fair 
held in aid of the Sanitary Commission in the 
Academy of Music the " Packer Table" was a 
prominent feature and added several thousand 
dollars to the general fund ; teachers and older 



Il6 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

scholars being spared from their daily duties to 
take charge of the sales. 

When the great excitement of the end came, no 
one took part in the brief outburst of joy over 
Lee's surrender and the anguish which almost 
instantly shrouded the nation at the fate of the 
first martyr-President with more intense earnest- 
ness than the Principal of the Packer Institute, 
who at once dismissed the school, not to reas- 
semble until after the public funeral ; a sacrifice 
of a pet theory which we who were intimatel)^ ac- 
quainted with him knew how to appreciate. 

Nor did Mr. Crittenden spare his own to the 
country's needs when the time came for the sacri- 
fice. His only son, then a member of the 23d 
Regiment, N. Y. S. M., was ordered to Harris- 
burg, opposite which he was encamped in June, 
1863. Several letters to him full of fatherly solici- 
tude mingled with willing devotion to the pubhc 
good are to be found among Mr. Crittenden's 
papers. 

Just before the close of the war, January 12, 
1865, the respected Principal received that which 
he considered as the greatest of honors — the de- 



SHADOW AND SUNSHINE. 11/ 

gree of Doctor of Philosophy, conferred by the 
regents of the University of the State of New 
York. This he considered a much more honor- 
able degree than one bestowed by a mere college, 
since the regents govern the colleges. 

His reverence for " the regents" was extreme. 
Both scholars and teachers learned from him to 
look upon them in the light of superior beings, 
and a "regents' examination" was invested with 
a formality usually accorded to royalty. The 
new title was easily adopted by new-comers, 
and by the time of Dr. Crittenden's death had 
become universal in the school of that day ; but 
to some of us early pupils the change was hard 
to make, and our old friend is Mr. CRITTENDEN 
to us to this day. 

But the golden days were before long suc- 
ceeded by darker ones. The health of the 
lovely and accomplished daughter, always the 
joy and delight of her father's heart, once more 
began to fail. She was now a young wife and 
mother, and the hearts of a whole family cir- 
cle were stirred with anxiety for the precious 
life. Physicians advised an entire change of air 



Il8 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

and scene, and the Principal himself, needing a 
period of rest and relaxation after so many years 
of close devotion to his work, applied for leave 
of absence, which the Trustees gladly granted, 
and the whole family went abroad. 

The following answer to the letter of applica- 
tion is presented to the reader in token of the 
high appreciation in which the Principal was held 
by those to whom he was directly responsible: 

May 28, 1867. 
To Alonzo Crittenden, Esq., Principal of the Faculty of 
Instruction of the Packer Collegiate Ifistitute. 
Dear Sir: The Board of Trustees at their meeting 
this evening appointed us to communicate to you an 
expression of their respect for you personally, and of 
their sense of the important services you have ren- 
dered to the cause of female education, here and else- 
where, as the head of two important academic institu- 
tions. We hope that your absence will insure you 
that repose which long and faithful labors so well 
deserve, and that you will return to us renewed in 
health and strength, and confirmed in your devotion 
to the interests to which you have dedicated so large 
a portion of your life. 

Truly yours, John H. Prentice, 

President pro tern. 



J. Sullivan Thorne, 

John Haslett, I ^ 

. ^ ^ > Committee. 

Abram B. Baylis, 

Joshua M. Van Cott, 



1 



SHADOW AND SUNSHIA^E. II9 

Before leaving home, Dr. Crittenden seemed 
to feel some apprehension that he never should 
return ; his manners became more than usually 
affectionate and tender, and his chapel-prayers 
more fervent. He sent for each teacher in turn, 
gave her earnest advice and counsel, and parted 
from her as though she had been his daughter in 
deed. He had little anxiety about leaving the 
school under the able superintendence of Profes- 
sor Eaton ; indeed, so thoroughly were the wheels 
of government organized that the school might 
have run itself, as it did for several months the 
winter of his death, when the Professor too, 
stricken down with an apparently mortal illness, 
lay upon a sick-bed at Asheville, N. C. 

During the whole period of absence, protracted 
because of the continuous and increasing illness of 
the object of his solicitude, the absent Principal 
wrote weekly letters which were read aloud to 
the whole school, and in this way we followed 
him all along a tour which included England, Ire- 
land and Scotland, Holland, Germany, Switzer- 
land, France, and Italy. Pauses longer or shorter 
were made at all the principal points of interest. 



.I20 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

and early in November the party reached Men- 
tone on the Mediterranean, where the invalid was 
housed for the winter. 

Here Mrs. Crittenden, Mr. and Mrs. Dana, 
and the children remained, while Dr. Critten- 
den, his son, and Miss Clara Talcott — a relative 
who afterwards died very suddenly while filling 
the position of a teacher in the Institute — made a 
tour in Italy, one of the party even crossing over 
into Africa. 

It was a sad winter that followed for the party 
at Mentone, the sadness culminating when on 
March 3d Mrs. Dana passed away. Of the grief 
of that parting in a strange land no written traces 
seem to have been preserved. The father's heart 
was almost broken ; the mother received her death- 
blow, from which she never entirely rallied, tak- 
ing henceforth the place of the family invalid, to 
be tenderly cared for and guarded by the husband 
whose heart was so entirely hers. 

The homeward journey commenced March 13th, 
and was taken in a somewhat leisurely fashion. 
From Paris, which was reached August 6th, Mr. 
Edward Crittenden returned to Mentone for the 



SHADOW AND SUNSHINE. 121 

remains of his sister, which he took to Havre, 
sailing for New York August 30th, while the 
rest of the party, crossing to England again, trav- 
elled through Wales, and sailed from Liverpool, 
reaching home ii? time for the opening of the 
fall term at the Institute. 

Of the exceedingly interesting correspondence 
of those eighteen months scarcely anything can 
be found. A long letter sent by Professor Eaton 
to the absent Principal still exists. It is written 
on thirty-eight thin sheets by thirty-eight differ- 
ent teachers. The sheets are pasted together 
and rolled like those of an ancient manuscript. 
It would be interesting, did space allow, to pub- 
lish the whole ; it would be invidious to make 
selections. A few allusions to Dr. Crittenden's 
travels appear in family letters, especially those 
written to his son concerning the interment of his 
daughter, and the kindness received from friends 
in England when visiting it for the second time 
under such sad auspices. 

A pleasant feature of this European tour was 
the many friends new and old whom the party 
was constantly making and meeting. The follow 



122 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

ing remembrance of one of these meetings has 
just been received. Its writer was a pupil in 
the Albany and a teacher in the Brooklyn Fe- 
male Academy. 

" In the autumn of 1868 Dr. Crittenden was 
one of a party of seven with whom I travelled 
over the Corniche road. We were five days in 
an Italian carriage, and I have no recollection ot 
him more vivid than when on that fifth day we 
ascended a spur of the Maritime Alps on our way 
to Spezzia. 

" It was Sunday. No one of the party but felt it 
wrong to travel on that day, but we had been 
strongly tempted. Our inn was uncomfortable 
from draughts and stony floors, the table wretched, 
and our host brigandish. As we ascended, our 
views were magnificent, the air clear and frosty, 
and the roadside chapels receiving and sending 
forth devout and picturesque worshippers. 

" In these calm heights our friend discoursed on 
subjects of interest in life and literature. He re- 
peated a sacred poem, the production of a mutual 
friend, and our day was one of great enjoyment. 

*' Mrs. Dana was at this time at Mentone, and 



SUA DO IV AND SUNSHINE. 12$ 

Mrs. Crittenden was anxiously watching- over her 
while her husband took this journey for rest and 
refreshment. 

" From my early childhood I had known these 
dear friends, and my regard increased with years." 
The home-coming of the stricken family was a 
sad one, but the heart of the returning School 
Father was gladdened by the warm welcome 
of his flock. A reception was held in the chapel 
of the Institute; several school poets expressing 
their affection in verse. 

The "Silver Wedding" of the Institution (Fe- 
male Academy and Packer Collegiate Institute 
combined) was celebrated in the summer of 1871. 
The exercises lasted nearly a week. There was a 
junior exhibition; a "Class Day" entertainment; 
a " Founder's Day ;" the Commencement proper 
(which was held in Dr. Storrs's church); an even- 
ing entertainment given by Mrs. Packer; an after- 
noon reception at Mr. Low's for the teachers and 
senior class ; and a distinct anniversary meeting in 
the Academy of Music, at which George William 
Curtis delivered the address. 

On the closing evening the whole Institute 



124 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

building, brilliantly lighted and beautifully deco- 
rated with pictures, statues, and flowers, was 
thrown open to many hundreds of invited guests, 
who were received by Mrs. Crittenden with state- 
ly courtesy and Mrs. Packer with unaffected grace. 
About three hundred of the Alumnae were pres- 
ent, and many broken ties were reunited as groups 
of old friends met together to recall the well- 
remembered scenes and incidents of days gone 
by. The assemblage was brilliant in the extreme. 
In the course of the evening a marble statue of 
Rev. Dr. Bethune, which still stands in the main 
entrance-hall, was unveiled. Rev. Dr. Vinton deliv- 
ering a brief address. During this address. Dr. 
Crittenden, who had throughout the evening 
seemed radiant with happiness, beckoned to sev- 
eral of us to follow him quietly into the apart- 
ments he then occupied, where, dropping on a 
sofa, he was seized with the first of those sinking 
turns the recurrence of which later ended in his 
death. One of his peculiar traits impressed itself 
on this occasion. Partially recovering, he said 
to one, who was bending over him, " Don't let 
Mrs. Crittenden know ; she is not strong enough 



SHADOW AND SUNSHINE. 12$ 

to stand shocks." Later in the evening, having 
to all appearance completely recovered, he stood 
upon the platform in the dear old chapel to re- 
ceive with graceful gladness the beautiful testi- 
monial gift in which many hearts had gladly uni- 
ted. Professor Eaton opened the mysterious box 
which had already excited the curiosity of many 
and disclosed a magnificent service of plate, the 
gift of the Alumnse and some of their friends. It 
was afterwards discovered that some one had pri- 
vately conveyed to the recipient an intimation of 
the honor he was to receive, and his feelings com- 
pletely overcoming him had caused the previous 
attack of prostration. 

The presentation was accompanied by a brief 
but eloquent speech from the Professor, who also 
read an impromptu poem entitled " Our Alma 
Mater," written by oi;ie of the Alumnas. This 
was certainly the moment of the successful Prin- 
cipal's highest triumph. He stood surrounded by 
the sheaves of his twenty-five years' seed-sowing 
and harvesting ; he had reached the goal of his 
ambition ; he was crowned with the bays woven 
by respect, appreciation, and gratitude; his cup 



126 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

was full, but he emptied it as a libation at the feet 
of his Bona Dea, the Institution, and felt the tri- 
umph to be hers rather than his own. 

Our Alma Mater. 

Lo ! once more gathered in our hall, 

A broken yet united band, 
We come responsive to that call 

Which, echoing widely o'er our land. 
Has bade us celebrate to-night 
Our Alma Mater's birthday bright. 

It rolled along the prairied West ; 

Its Southern echo from the sea 
Was wafted upward to the crest 

Of Eastern hill and midland lea : 
And wearing still our mother's chain, 
We heard her mandate not in vain. 

Hand has met hand in loving grasp, 

Bright smile has answered to bright smile. 

Time has prevailed not to unclasp 
The golden bands forged here erewhile, 

And memory's magic touch can bring 

Even to August breaths of spring. 

We have brought with us chastened hearts, 
Fresh-springing blades and ripening ears, 

Deep channels furrowed by the parts 
Each one has played these busy years ; 

Our gathered sheaves we fain would lay 

Upon our mother's shrine to-day. 



SHADOW AND SUNSHINE. 12/ 

Yet while the star of home may be 

Its mother-love, a beacon-light 
Guiding across life's stormy sea 

Its loved ones to their harbor bright, 
Before we pass the threshold o'er 
A father's blessing guards the door. 



Our father ! to thy patient care 
Our Alma Mater owes its fame ; 

And thou art honored everywhere 
That floats the echo of her name. 

We greet to-night with loyal pride 

Our father and his silver bride. 



Not daughterless thou art e'en here, 
Although above these summer skies 

Two radiant forms be waiting thee 
Robed in the hues of paradise : 

For thee a daughter's bosom glows 

In every State our Union knows. 

We are not all sweet maidens fair, 
Our youth is gliding swift away. 

As raven tress and golden hair 

O'er many a brow is streaked with gray; 

To-night such tokens speak in vain, 

To thee we are but girls again. 



Girls in the grateful love which lays 

Before thy feet our little all ; 
Girls in the shy half-uttered praise 

Which on thy heart like dew may fall ; 
As incense from the fresh June flowers 
Wafts back the fragrance of her showers. 



128 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Thy words have been in many a fight 
The conquering legend on our shield ; 

And oft in sorrow's stormy night, 
Held where all other anchors yield. 

Thy hands have clasped our casque and mail 

And trimmed our vessels for the gale. 

So as to-night we meet to keep 
With joyful hearts our mother's day, 

To him who up the rugged steeps 
Of learning led our onward way, 

To him we fain would offering bring 

As at his feet our thanks we sing. 

Accept our gift! Not metal base ; 

Sacred as mediaeval shrine, 
More precious than Etruscan vase. 

Love sought the treasure in the mine. 
To eyes that loving see aright 
This silver hath celestial light. 

We cannot thank thee : only pray 

For sunset brighter far than dawn ; 
That He who led thee all life's way 

May ope at last the gates of morn, 
Then bid thine opened vision see 
All that thy daughters owe to thee. 

M. E. W. 



THE LAST DECADE. 1 29 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE LAST DECADE. 

Home Life — Somerville — Rothstein Lodge — A New Daughter — 
Correspondence — The Milton Shield — Signing his Will. 

OOME men there are who seem to have drunk 
deeply of the fountain of perpetual youth : 
years do not sour them ; time does not silver them ; 
their eyes are not dim ; their natural force is 
scarcely abated. No one who knew Alonzo Crit- 
tenden during the ten or twelve years which inter- 
vened between the " silver wedding" and his death 
ever thought of him as an old man. 

He had repeated illnesses, generally attacks of 
difficult breathing, possibly, as physicians now 
think, of the same heart-trouble which finally 
caused his death ; but on the whole he filled 
his old place in the school, and though he no 
longer taught classes, the Institute felt his indi- 
viduality as strongly as ever. But there was 
a change in him which every one saw and felt : 



130 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

there was a certain tremulousness of hand which 
led him generally to dictate his letters, although 
when he did write them himself the penmanship 
was as clear and characteristic as ever, and the 
signature had lost nothing of its firmness. He 
began to lean insensibly upon the judgment of 
others, finding substantial aid and support in Pro- 
fessor Eaton and Miss Susan K. Cook, head of the 
collegiate department. 

But more and more his heart seemed to turn to 
his home life, with its sweet duties and healthful 
cares; above all, its broad hospitalities. Provi- 
dence had favored him, as it always does those of 
good business ability, — with more than a compe- 
tence, and the comforts he was able to secure were 
for everybody's benefit as much as his own. 

As early as 1850 he had become possessed of 
about one hundred and eighty acres of land in 
Westchester County, between Bronxville and 
Mount Vernon, on which stood a small old farm- 
house, which he remodelled in English style and 
named Somerville Cottage. This farm was one 
of three given by government to the captors of 
Major Andr^, and thus possessed historic interest 



THE LAST DECADE. 131 

in addition to the beauty of its situation and the 
charm conferred by its unbounded hospitality. 

Here he removed his family in early sprino- 
every year, going out himself as soon as school 
closed on Friday afternoons and coming in early 
on Monday morning— always, however, reaching 
the Institute in time for prayers. The commo- 
dious "cottage" was generally filled to over- 
flowing, and nowhere were guests so royally 
entertained. Legends of these festivities are still 
extant, in especial of one grand sleigh-ride in which 
Rev. Dr. S. I. Prime, Dr. Haslett, and several other 
distinguished Brooklynites were with their fami- 
lies transported to the comfortable mansion. 
Here they found warm fires and a warmer wel- 
come prepared for their reception by the cousin 
who presided over the household in the absence 
of its mistress, spent a gay evening and a comfort- 
able night, and were in the morning carried merrily 
back to town. 

Later the old farm was sold, and a beautiful 
place was purchased from the Rev. Dr. Eels at 
Englewood, New Jersey, and thither the family 
was transported, hospitality and all. This house 



132 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

was one of those old New Jersey stone mansions 
modernized, and received from its new owner the 
name of Rothstein (red stone) Lodge. It was 
bought chiefly with a view to the recuperation of 
Mrs. Dana's already failing health; and although 
she did not live long to enjoy it, its owner took 
great delight in his fields and his gardens, his 
cattle and his fruit. The writer remembers with 
great pleasure three brilliant autumn days spent 
by her and her sister at this delightful man- 
sion. Its kind hosts devoted themselves to the 
entertainment of their guests, showing them of the 
beautiful palisade country 

" As much as two strong Jiorses 
Could do from morn till night." 

In winter these same horses were used in 
the city for everybody's convenience. Invalid 
friends were taken to drive ; the carriage was 
placed at the service of those in affliction ; it was 
seen at funerals, especially of the poor, who other- 
wise had had few followers. 

The family circle consisted for a time of Dr. 
and Mrs. Crittenden, their son, their son-in-law 



THE LAST DECADE. 1 33 

and his two motherless little girls, to whom their 
grandmother was a second mother. To this 
happy home party was added in 1872 a young 
lady from Wayne, N. Y., who in becoming Mr. 
Edward Crittenden's wife became also the sun- 
shine of the home, fitting into the lost daughter's 
place, and becoming in time emphatically the "old 
man's darling." Most of the letters from his pen 
which have been preserved are to this beloved 
daughter and her children, as one by one they 
came to call out still more his wealth of affection ; 
and among the last of his intelligible sentences 
was the following, addressed to her, 

" I can die in perfect peace, trusting to your 
good judgment and discretion." 

The following welcome awaited his son and 
daughter on their return from their wedding trip : 

September 17, 1S72. 
My Dear Children : 

I have a presentiment that you will return to-day ; 
and I regret more than you know that I shall not be 
here to receive and bid you welcome. And worse 
than all, your good mother will not have the pleasure, 
the very great pleasure, both you and she anticipated 
of extending to you both the right hand of truth, and 
of pressing you to a heart glowing with love. 



134 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

I must go back to my work for just a little time 
longer, and I am sorry that I feel so illy able to 
perform it. But you must not be anxious on my 
account. God bless you, my dear children. May the 
burdens of life be lighter to you both than they pos- 
sibly could have been had you not resolved to share 
them together! Your devoted Father. 

On receiving the announcement of the birth of 
his first grandson he wrote to the happy father: 

October 31, 1873. 
I have just received your telegram. Your mother 
is overcome with joy. She said, "Down upon your 
knees and thank God." A. C. 

On October 4, 1877, he thus announces to his 
daughter the deaths of two who had been long and 
intimately associated with the Packer: 

October 4, 1878, 
We carried our dear friend Dr. Haslett to his final 
resting-place last Sunday. To-day we pay our token 
of respect and sympathy to a former and beloved co- 
worker, Miss Louise Van Ingen. So we are passing 
over one by one, and soon we shall all be there; may 
it be where there is no more sorrow, no more sin! 

From one of the longest and most interesting 
of his letters still remaining, the following, also 



THE LAST DECADE. 135 

addressed to his daughter, will be found of great 
interest : 

Sunday, September 22, 1878. 

The service is over and the dinner, and I am at my 
table to close this note commenced this morning. The 
text was, "And every one shall give an account of him- 
self to God," a solemn and admonitory sermon from 
our good little minister, Mr. Booth, May we all so 
live that we can give the account with joy, receiving 
the welcome, " Well done, good and faithful servant" ! 

It is a serious matter when we live simply in refer- 
ence to our own individual welfare, but frightful 
when we consider the influence our conduct may 
have upon the destiny of our children and others whom 
we influence. It is my constant prayer, Leave us not 
alone to ourselves. 

I am determined, if perseverance can accomplish it, 
to get my affairs so arranged that they will give me 
less trouble and be less likely to trouble others. 
Delay, especially when interest is concerned that 
knows no delay, has ruined thousands. 

I read in the chapel the other morning the 25th 
chapter of Matthew, and then referred to the yellow- 
fever in the South ; the destitution and the need of 
clothing. In forty-eight hours some 125 bundles of 
clothing were sent to the Institute contributed by gay 
ladies. Was it not noble ? yes, glorious ? Poor deso- 
late South ! How chastened, and how liberal the con- 
tributions from the North ! New York alone has 
raised three quarters of a million of dollars. I do not 
believe that nobler or more generous men live on this 
round earth than are to be found in this city. A. C. 



136 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Another letter will help to show the pleas- 
ant relations existing between the father and 
daughter : 

To HIS Daughter-in-law. 

Your mother loves you all quite as much as she 
should, but she says more of " my boy" than of the 
•other, who I wish you to understand is '* my boy." Lo ! 
what will you and their father do ? 

Well, we will be as considerate and kind as Pharaoh's 
daughter, and let you nurse the boys, and we trust 
they will have such training as will qualify them to 
find their way through the wilderness of sin. 

The Good Father knows best, but I had not thought, 
my dear Margaret, that you needed this severe disci- 
pline. Yet you may (see Heb, xii. 6). After all the 
experiments that have been made since the world was 
created to secure comfort under trial and consolation 
under all circumstances, there is but one unfailing 
source (ist Tim. i. 15). . . . 

Do you remember Dr. Storrs's sermon on the dignity 
of labor? (Mai. xx. 28.) You are in a condition to make 
-a trial, and I hope you will find yourself benefited by 
your work. If you can feel the rock of ages your 
support, you will not fail. 

You don't know how dearly your mother (step) 
loves you. Are you not fortunate in having two such 
mothers? Better than to hd^ve forefathers. 

The following extracts from letters written to 
Dr. Crittenden's grandchildren during the clos- 



THE LAST DECADE. 1 3/ 

ing years of his life, present so beautiful a picture 
of the loving heart chastened and ripened by age 
and discipline, yet living a renewed youth in the 
young life of a third generation, that it has seemed 
no violation of the sanctities of home to lay them 
before an appreciative public of old scholars and 
warm friends, for whom chiefly this volume has 
been written. The quaintly characteristic ad- 
dresses are the grandfather's own. 

To Samuel Hallett Crittenden. 

December 25, 1878. 
The Dear Precious Child Samuel: May you early 
hear the voice of the Lord calling you into His service, 
and may you say " Here am I "! Grandpa. 

To Masters Edward, Alonzo, and Hallett 
Crittenden. 

Isle of Shoals, Portsmouth, N. H., 
July 3, 1879. 
My Dear Little Men: 

When we get home I shall tell you all about these 
strange isles, and about a most strange man with a 
strange name — John Smith — who discovered them al- 
most three hundred years ago. He made a map of 
the region, went back to England, was a great sailor, 
mariner, and famous in many ways. . . , 

When you learn the strange history of Smith, and of 



138 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Others like him, you will be prepared to travel with 
interest and profit. , . . 

People may be happy in almost any condition if 
they are good and amiable, for then they will have 
friends who will make them happy almost in spite of 
themselves. But if you expect to have friends to 
make you happy, you must take care to make others 
happy, and this you cannot do without often giving 
up what seems to be the most desirable for the pleas- 
ure or good of others. I have never been so proud of 
Edward as when he has given up to Alonzo simply 
because he was the youngest. But Alonzo will soon 
learn that he cannot enjoy anything that will give 
others pain or even inconvenience to yield. . . . 

May the loving Father bless you and make you His 
own dear children! Grandpa. 

To Master Edward Crittenden. 

August 15, 1880. 

And now, my little man, how do you feel in view of 
the responsibilities you have assumed as the protector 
of your mother and exemplar to Hallett and your lit- 
tle sister? 

Your dear mother has a right to look to you now 
for assistance, aid, and comfort, as hereafter she will 
for protection. 

At your age it will often be hard for you to dis- 
charge all the duties you owe to your mother, broth- 
ers and little sister, to yourself, and to your Heavenly 
Father, the giver of all you have or all you may ex- 
pect to have. I have often told you that you must be 
a model, for your brothers and little sister will be like 
you in character. It will be hard at times; . . . but 



THE LAST DECADE. 1 39 

just make the experiment, and then you will know 
whether you have greater pleasure in pleasing others 
or yourself. The pleasantest rides I have ever had 
have been when I have given my horse to another and 
walked myself. 

Some men and women often when they have done 
wrong or acted wickedly resort to falsehood to cover 
their folly and shame, but they never succeed. The 
trouble is they know it, and God knows it; they lose all 
respect for themselves, and cannot expect favor from 
God or man. Truthfulness is the foundation of a 
noble and manly character, and the want of it destruc- 
tive of all that is desirable in this life or life everlast- 
ing. And then let me commend to you another ele- 
ment of a noble and manly character — honor and 
respect to parents. Ask your mamma to repeat to 
you the fifth commandment, and read what the wise 
man says in Prov. xxx. 17. You cannot obey the fifth 
commandment without cheerful and prompt obedi- 
ence. A. C. 

To THE Precious Little Pearl [Margaret]. 

December 25, 1880. 
Blessings on you, our little Pearl ! God grant in 
mercy that you may live to be all that your father, 
mother, and other friends, and that we anticipate ! 
Grandpa and Grandma Crittenden. 

To Edward H. Crittenden. 

December 25, 1880. 
Dear Edward: Ever bear in mind that " life will 
be what you make it." Persistent people begin their 
success where others end in failure. Grandpa. 



140 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

December 25, 1880. 
To Alonzo the Brave — Ever Ready. 

My Dear Namesake: Be good and you will be 
happy. Ever remember that the reward of virtue is 
virtue. And if you would have friends be one. You 
have the blessing of grandpa and grandma. May God 
add His, which is far better ! 

To Master Hallett. 

December 25, 1881. 
Dear Hallett: If you wish to have the means of 
making others happy, take care of the pennies. 

This is one way; a better one is to be cheerful and 
happy yourself. 

May the good Father always have you in His keep- 
ing ! Grandpa. 

During these years Mrs. Crittenden's health was 
continually failing. She never entirely recovered 
from the strain of that sad winter at Mentone, and 
she became a constant and confirmed invalid. 
Much of her husband's time and thoughts were 
taken up with care for her comfort and temporary 
relief. Several successive winters southern trips 
were undertaken with this end ; they seemed to 
greatly benefit Dr. Crittenden himself, who 
always came back invigorated and rejuvenated. 
He came back also completely au fait at every- 



THE LAST DECADE. I4I 

thing which had occurred in the school during his 
absence, and ready to resume the reins as though 
they had never been dropped. 

It was during the first of these Southern trips 
that he wrote to his son : 

April 16, 1870. 

Your letter bearing the sad intelligence of dear 
Clara's death was received last evening. 

Your indorsement on the envelope was considerate, 
as it prepared us for the tidings. 

A death like this to one so ripe for heaven is beauti- 
ful. What a transition from earth to heaven, from 
pain to praise ! 

Considering all the circumstances, who of all who 
loved and admired her character can doubt that for 
her " to die is gain" ? No one out of our own immediate 
family was nearer or dearer to us than Clara ; and we 
cannot desire to have it otherwise. It is " far better" 
that she should "depart" and be with her Saviour. 

The reader will remember that Miss Clara Tal- 
cott was one of the European party. Like her 
cousin she died in harness, having stood faithfully 
at her post in the Institute until five o'clock in the 
afternoon, and receiving her summons to " come 
up higher" at midnight of the same da}^ March 
14, 1870. 



142 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

It was on one of these southern trips also that 
Dr. Crittenden renewed his intimacy with his 
Greenville friend, an extract from whose tribute 
of affectionate appreciation was given in the earlier 
pages of this memorial. He henceforth kept up 
with her a constant and interesting correspond- 
ence, concerning which she writes: 

" The happy faculty he had of recollecting that 
which was pleasant is illustrated in the following 
extract from one of his letters : ' Mrs. S. made a 
short call yesterday, and gave occasion to revive 
old scenes of lang syne — the pleasant time we 
spent at G., your visit to R. L., and recollections 
of long ago. How grateful we should be that we 
are so constituted that we can live over and over 
again the pleasantest parts of our lives ! Almost 
every week I make the whole tour of Europe just 
in an hour with a friend, and thus we have made 
you all at G. and P. a visit.' 

" Another extract shows how he thought we 
should receive our blessings : ' I am quite delight- 
ed to know that you are so comfortably situated ; 
free from care ; have so many dear ones around 
you. All this, and heaven besides ! What can. 



THE LAST DECADE. I43 

you desire more? It must be your own fault if 
you are not happy.' 

"Another suggestion in one of his letters is, 
* Cheerfulness is the best medicine, and I hope you 
will take it, well shaken up by hearty laughs, morn- 
ing, noon, and night.' 

" And still another gives expression to his un- 
tiring, active, and buoyant spirit : ' It is a good 
thing that we are all too busy to grow old.' 

" I regret that many of his letters are packed 
away beyond reach at this time, or other charac- 
teristics could be brought out from many terse 
ejaculatory sentences, in which good counsel, rev- 
erent submission to the Divine Will, cheerful en- 
couragement, sprightly allusions and playful re- 
marks all had their part. His was a life so full ot 
youth that to be with him was to throw off care. 
Such a life can never entirely pass out of the lives 
of those who follow him." 

In August, 1879, occurred the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the marriage of Dr. and Mrs. Crittenden. 
A golden-wedding celebration was proposed, and 
for some time under consideration in the family. 
The plan was, however, abandoned, partly in con- 



144 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

sideration of Mrs. Crittenden's delicate health, 
partly because the season was one when most of 
the family connections were out of town. 

Many friends, however, sent congratulatory let- 
ters and notes, and Professor Horsford, whose 
friendship, commenced so long ago in Albany, had 
never been cooled by years, accompanied his letter 
by a gift of the Milton Shield, a beautiful disk of 
metal on whose surface some of the chief scenes 
from " Paradise Lost" are embossed. 

Dr. Crittenden was greatly delighted with 
and highly prized this beautiful gift. Meeting a 
friend soon afterward, he insisted on taking her 
home with him to inspect it and listen to its his- 
tory. At his death he bequeathed it to the Insti- 
tute. 

Professor Horsford's esteem and admiration of 
his early friends continued unabated to the end. 
On hearing that Mrs. Crittenden would in all pro- 
bability die, he wrote, under date of 

May 2, 1882. 
My Poor Dear Friend : 

I have your sad letter. It is inexpressibly sad, but, 
my dear friend, what infinite mercies have been yours ! 
How long the blessed companionship, the common 



THE LAST DECADE. 145 

sweet memories, the privileges of mutual trust and 
service have been vouchsafed to you ! Think of this, 
and know in spite of the darkness there is infinite 
wisdom beyond. . 

I have been so much in the presence of the pro- 
cession going over to the other side for the last few 
months, it does not seem as far to the end as it once 
did. . . . Affectionately yours, 

E. N. HORSFORD. 

To the story of the year 1880 belongs this touch- 
ing incident, communicated by Mrs. Roger A 
Pry or to Mr. Edward Crittenden, and now pub- 
lished by his kind permission : 

Signing his Will."^ 

" Brooklyn, May 17, 1881. 

" The circumstances attending the writing and 
signing of Dr. Crittenden's will seem to me so 
solemn and interesting that I have resolved to 
write them while they are fresh in my memory. 

"One evening in December, 1880 (I forget the 
precise date), Mr. Pryor came to me while I was 
conversing with some guests in my parlor. He 
said, 'You must excuse yourself for a few min- 
utes ; I need you in the library.' 

* The will signed^upon this occasion was not a final one. 



146 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

" Upon reaching the library I found Dr. Crit- 
tenden, who immediately said to me, 

" * I wish you to witness my will. You see, my 
young friends, I give you my confidence.' Then 
turning to me, he said pleasantly, ' You know you 
have the pen of a ready writer.' 

•' My husband put the usual questions to him, 
and I wrote what was dictated to me and signed 
the will. 

" He came again to our house on the evening of 
Mr. John Dullard's funeral, and was much dis- 
turbed at finding Mr. Pryor absent. He said to 
me very earnestly, * I must add a codicil to my 
will, and you must witness it. I cannot rest until 
I get my house in order.' 

" We did not hear from him again until the 
first of May. He called frequently, but Mr. Pryor 
was out of the city, and I promised to let him 
know the moment my husband returned. He then 
said, ' I must trouble you again ; I have written my 
will all over.' 

" He was impatient about my husband's absence 
and sent several times to know if he had returned. 
Finally Mr. Pryor arrived, and I immediately noti- 



THE LAST DECADE. I47 

fied him of the fact. He came at once, bringing 
the new will. He left it with us for an hour, and 
returning, said, * I have altered my will. I wish to 
direct my executors so that those who come after 
me will have no trouble and no perplexity.' 

"After the will was signed he became very 
cheerful. He talked happily about his failing 
health, telling of his difficulty in breathing. Mr. 
Pryor's attention was attracted by his unusual 
spirits, and he said, ' You seem, sir, to look upon 
death with great serenity.' 

" * I do, I do,' replied Dr. Crittenden. ' I have 
no fears, no sad thoughts ; my house is in order. 
He presently added, * In this matter I have coun- 
selled with you alone ; I owe you more than 
thanks.' 

" My husband replied, ' We are honored ; 3^ou 
owe us nothing, not even thanks ; we are only too 
glad to serve you.' 

" I was sitting across the room a little to his 
right, the library-table being between us, and he 
leaned over and looked at me, saying, * Why, 
your face wears a minor expression ! It is usually 
major ; why is this ? ' 



148 ALONZO CRITTENDEN, 

'* I replied, ' The occasion is sad and mournful 
to me, dear Mr. Crittenden.' 

" He laughed lightly and said, * Oh, no ! oh, no ! * 
" Writing this, I feel that my words have not 
conveyed the impression of peace, serenity, and 
cheerfulness which his manner gave us. When he 
left, Mr. Pryor said, * A noble, honorable man ; a 
man who need not fear death.' 

" Sara Agnace Pryor." 

Accompanying the above statement Mrs. Pryor 
sent the following note, received by her the day 
after Dr. Crittenden's birthday and alluding 
no doubt to the signing of his will : 

4. 8. 80. 
Dear Mrs. Pryor : 

I was greatly gratified with your note of congratula- 
tions yesterday. It was to me a sadly pleasant day. 

It should not have had an element of sadness. The 
setting sun of so long a day should pillow its head 
upon the gold and azure, the harbingers of a day that 
knows no night. A. Crittenden, 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. 149 



CHAPTER IX. 

A SAD SPRING-TIME. 

The Last Birthday — Estimate of an Old Teacher — A Base Attack 
— Offers his Resignation — Trustees Refuse to Accept — Letter 
from Professor Eaton — Death of Mrs. Crittenden — The Alum- 
nae Association, 

'T^HE year 1882 was the last of Dr. Critten- 
den's life, and on the whole the saddest. 
There are golden summer days whose early 
showers have long since cleared away, whose 
noontide has been sunny, and whose afternoon 
mellow, into which, just before sunset, there often 
comes a thunder-storm, sent as it were to afford 
a background on which might be painted the 
glowing rainbow of promise for the coming mor- 
row. Such a dark background did Dr. Critten- 
den's last year furnish for the glory beyond. 

Mrs. Crittenden's health had been for some 
years steadily failing ; his own was far from good. 
Hand in hand the faithful couple were descending 
the last slope which led to the shadowy river, and 



150 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

the chief care of each was to make the descent of 
the other as easy as possible, while daily sowing- 
seeds of sweet, bright memories to grow up and 
bear precious fruit in the hearts of the dear ones 
so soon to be left behind. Mrs. Crittenden's 
family letters of that period, of which many have 
been preserved, are full of a lovely Christian spirit 
which told of well-improved discipline and in- 
creasing ripeness for heaven. In the midst of her 
weakness she still wrote frequently, even attempt- 
ing, from time to time, some playful little verses 
to accompany a gift or tribute of affection. The 
last birthday letter to her husband which has 
been preserved is as follows : 

My Dear Old Husband : ^P"^ 7. 

I cannot let this day pass without thanking you for 
all your devotion and kindness to me, unvaried 
through my married life, and still increasing as my 
health and strength seem to depart from me. 

I have no offering but that of a grateful, loving 
heart ; but may God bless you for "all your labors of 
love," and illumine your later years with His approv- 
ing smiles and blessings ! 

Your ain auld Wife. 

That last birthday was a green one in the Doc- 
tor's life. Teachers, pupils, and friends vied with 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. 151 

each other in the presentation of good wishes and 
note's, fruits and flowers. Flora seemed to have 
decorated the Institute, and Pomona to have 
piled the office table with her choicest gifts. The 
old man was young again in his joy. 

Hearing of the ovation, a friend, once connected 
with the Institute, sent him next day a copy of 
her last book, with a playful little note which said : 

" Fruits and flowers have I none ; but such as I 
have send I unto thee. Please accept the grand- 
child of the Institute." 

He was greatly delighted with this little gift ; 
carried it from room to room, reading the note to 
the teachers, and telling the pupils that that was 
the kind of thing to be expected of them. He 
also sat down and wrote the author an autograph 
note of thanks — the last she ever received from 
him — which closed with the words : 

" I hope you will always find the secret of vic- 
tory [the title of the book] where you have 
placed it— at the foot of the Cross." 

In reply to the note of another teacher he wrote 
next day the subjoined answer, which needs some 
little explanation to make it intelligible. 



152 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

A foolish, ruthless barbarian, regardless alike of 
gratitude, respect for age, and sympathy for sor- 
row, published a series of articles denouncing 
both the school and its Principal in no measured 
terms. The attack on himself might have been 
borne with equanimity, but to find fault with the 
Packer was to touch the very apple of his eye. 
And to make the cut still keener, the articles were 
signed " An Old Graduate." Sharp thrusts from 
outsiders might be borne with philosophical 
resignation, but that one who bore towards him 
and her Alma Mater the relation of a daughter 
should be guilty of such a cowardly act almost 
broke the sensitive, affectionate heart, and led 
him some months later to offer his resignation. 

This is his note, probably in answer to one 
of sympathy from the person to whom it was 
written : 

April 8, 1882. 
Dear Miss T : 

Many thanks for your note of yesterday. How 
strange that these defects in character and attain- 
ment, like latent heat, should have been hid for so 
many years, all the more remarkable as I have been 
all these years in charge of a large institution that no 
•one has considered a failure ! And most of all re- 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. 1 53 

markable as I have all the time been intimately as- 
sociated with the most cultivated and refined people, 
and during the time have received four honorary 
diplomas. 

As ever and truly your friend, 

A. Crittenden, 

The recipient of the above has sent for insertion 
in this memorial an exceedingly fair and critical 
view of Dr. Crittenden in his relation to female 
education, written probably with a thought of the 
above facts. Perhaps it will find no more fitting 
place than this chapter : 

" Dr. Crittenden's great strength as an edu- 
cator was, I imagine, in his discernment of the 
average demands of the community, and his con- 
fining his efforts to supplying these rather than 
seeking to bring them to an impossible or, for the 
present, unattainable ideal. 

" In this way he made the Packer a popular 
school. An idealist would have elevated its 
standard of scholarship, and would have done 
better work for the smaller number of pupils who 
would accept his views, but would not have car- 
ried the community with him. There is need for 
both; the people must have what they will take 



154 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

until they can be educated, by forces that are con- 
stantly at work enlarging and elevating the popu- 
lar intelligence, to perceive and accept something 
higher. 

"The daughters of the higher class of intellect- 
ual men will be educated in any case, more or 
less, by the atmosphere they live in. It may be a 
greater service to the community to provide the 
instruction which the commercial classes will ap- 
preciate. 

** Dr. Crittenden's unimpeachable integrity 
and high standard of purity in social conduct are 
well worthy of mention." 

The result of these public attacks was to cause 
the removal of a few pupils from the school ; and 
the Principal, tired with his long journey, bowed 
down with his family sorrow, weakened by failing 
health, and disheartened by his apparent failure 
to secure the ends for which he had so long and 
faithfully labored, conceived the morbid idea that 
his removal would be advantageous to the school, 
and sent in his resignation to the Trustees in the 
following note : 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. I55 

7o the Trustees of the Packer Collegiate Itistitute. 

Gentlemen : In 1845 I accepted from your prede- 
cessors an invitation to take charge, as Principal, of 
the institution of which you are the legal guardians. 
I pledged my best efforts to co-operate with the Trus- 
tees to establish, and build up, an institution that 
should be an ornament and a pride to this beautiful 
city. In this work I have given, for more than a 
generation of time, my best services, and I am satis- 
fied with the results of our united efforts. 

Time has passed so pleasantly and so silently that 
I cannot realize that I have passed my threescore 
and ten, the limit assigned to the best faculties of 
body and mind ; and while I am not conscious that 
either are impaired, it is quite certain that they soon 
will be, and it becomes my duty, though a painful 
one, to resign, as I now do, my position as Principal. 

No one of the Board who elected me to the honor- 
able and responsible position I have occupied so 
many years remains to receive my thanks for their 
uniform courtesy and kindness. 

You, as they, have imposed upon me obligations I 
can never discharge. The best I have to give is my 
heartfelt gratitude. 

With perfect respect, 

A. Crittenden. 

It is unnecessary to say that the proposition 
embodied in the above letter was never for a 
moment entertained by the Board of Trustees, 
who at their next meeting unanimously passed 
the followins: resolution : 



156 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

April 24, 1884. 
On motion of Judge Van Cott, 

Resolved, That the resignation of Dr. Crittenden be 
not accepted, and that the matter be referred to the 
President to confer with Dr. Crittenden upon his 
communication. 

Learning- that his old and revered friend and 
colleague contemplated this step, Professor Eaton 
wrote him the following warm, loving letter: 

Packer Collegiate Institute, 

April 23, 1882. 
My Dear Friend : 

I desire to make one more effort to dissuade you 
from your purpose to resign your place at the head 
of this Institution. 

I. There is no urgent necessity for such a course. 
You are certainly as well qualified for the duties of 
your position, both mentally and physically, as you 
have been for several years. You are even in better 
condition now than one year ago, when you enter-i 
tained the same purpose. 

II. I fear your resignation at this juncture will be 
misunderstood by many. Occurring so soon after the 
recent malicious attacks on this Institution by some 
of the New York papers, your action will seem to 
result from a pressure caused by those attacks. I 
should be sorry to have the authors of those articles 
comfort themselves with any such false notion. 

III. The Packer Institute is your life-work. It is 
your achievement, and will be your lasting monu- 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. 1^7 

ment. It will carry your name down to posterity as 
really as the name of Packer. To it you have given 
your noblest efforts and the best part of your life. It 
is what you have made it. Stand in your place^ 
therefore, and work on until Providence shall indicate 
more plainly than at present the wisdom of your pro- 
posed action. 

IV. I ask you to desist for reasons personal to my- 
self. You have been to me a father, a brother, a 
friend. More than any other man you have influenced 
my life and character. I love you more than I can 
express, and more than you will ever know. While 
the step you propose will not, I trust, and certainly 
on my part cannot interrupt our friendship, it will, in 
form at least, sever one tie which has long bound us 
in perfect harmony. Let us work on hand in hand 
as we are, and let Providence settle these doubtful 
questions. You may yet outlive me, and I must con- 
fess I should not be sorry to have it so. 

Let us be content, and put a cheerful courage on. 
If you wish any relief, either from care or responsi- 
bility, put upon me what you like, but don't leave me. 

While I am sure the Trustees will not, under any 
circumstances, allow you to sever your connection 
entirely with this Institution, I greatly prefer that 
you will remain exactly as you are. I can so arrange 

my department by Miss E 's assistance as to give 

you all the time and help, by way of oversight or 
other work that you may wish. 

Lastly, I ask, as a personal favor to me, that if you 
are still resolved to take this step, you will withhold 
your resignation until September next. 

Say nothing of your intention ; let your name go 



158 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

into the catalogue as usual, and thus give the Institu- 
tion the benefit and influence of your name for one 
year at least. 

I am sure this will be best for the school and best 
for you. When the autumn comes we will talk this 
matter over again, and you can then do what may 
seem wise. Wait and see what the new year will 
bring forth. 

Sincerely your friend and brother, 

D. G. Eaton. 

" Never can I forget," says the Professor, " the 
manner in which that letter was received. Dr. 
Crittenden, trembling with excitement, sprang 
up the stairs to the laboratory with the agility oi 
years ago, and, with eyes swimming in tears, threw 
his arms round me and kissed me like a child." 

The letter answered its purpose ; the advice 
was taken : the resignation was not pressed, and 
when Alonzo Crittenden died he was still 
Principal of the Packer Institute. 

But sorrows more personal in their nature were 
now pressing upon the sorrowing husband's heart. 
The friend and companion of so many years 
rested from her labors and sufferings May 5, 
1882, and, as all around her had ample reason to 
believe, " awoke in that likeness" of which she had 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. 1 59 

already exhibited so much. His sorrow, though 
deep and real, was manly and subdued rather than 
childish or sentimental. He accepted all the 
sympathy and consolation offered him, and cher- 
ished every scrap of writing which related to 
her. 

A few extracts from these letters of condolence, 
which are after all really expressions of apprecia- 
tion for himself, are given below. The following, 
written by his Greenville friend, was rather in- 
tended as a memorial than a letter: 

" Another link is broken which has made the 
past so beautiful in many lives. The influence ot 
a noble, true woman when associated from year 
to year with the young under her care cannot be 
estimated. The power that moves in the land 
is often silent, but trace back the growth of that 
strength and you find a little seed has taken root 
in one young heart many, many years ago. It did 
not die, but sprang up and bore fruit. It sowed 
itself again in other hearts and minds, and lo ! the 
fruit returns a thousandfold. Nothing can arrest 
its wide-spread influence. It was * sown beside all 
waters,' and year after year has increased and 



l6o ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

extended until many arise and call her blessed 
who wrought this great good. 

** She whom we mourn, but for whom we ought 
to rejoice, and who has left us to enter upon her 
reward, was such a one. Strong, faithful, un- 
swerving in the line of duty, she inspired the faint- 
ing heart, strengthened the weak, and by her ex- 
ample encouraged all high and laudable ambitions. 
A long life of earnest labor such as hers cannot 
close without calling forth a responsive throb in 
many hearts, and far, far away from her last rest- 
ing-place the tear of love falls, and we mourn 
with those who are near that the loving words 
are all spoken, are all written, are all in the past. 

" But for her we know there is rest. ' Blessed 
are the dead who die in the Lord. They rest 
from their labors, and their works do follow 
them.* 

" From one who knew and loved her many 
years ago, and whose privilege it has 
been to enjoy a life-long friendship." 

The following letter of condolence was at once 
sent to Dr. Crittenden, and a copy of resolutions 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. l6l 

drawn up and adopted by the Board of Trustees 
which will be found in the Appendix : 

May I, 1882. 
Dear Dr. Crittenden : 

Pray accept the assurance of our most cordial sym- 
pathy in this hour of sorrow. The loss can only be 
measured by the greatness of the blessing that has 
been enjoyed, and surely our gratitude is due to Him 
who has so long preserved that precious life, — restor- 
ing her soul when so often she seemed to be at the 
very entrance of the valley of the shadow, and lead- 
ing her ever in the paths of righteousness. 

May the God of all comfort and sustain you and 
have you in His holy keeping. 

Truly your friends, 
[Signed by twenty-eight lady teachers.] 

The school was dismissed after morning prayers 
on the day of the funeral, and a large number of 
friends attended the services, which were held in 
the afternoon at Dr. Crittenden's residence next 
door to the Institute. Notices briefly mentioning 
the social and moral worth of the dead appeared 
in both Brooklyn ^nd Albany papers. 



1 62 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

The following are from the letters of condolence 
received during the weeks that followed : 

I South Oxford Street, 
May ID, 1882. 
Prof. Crittenden. 

Dear Friend: I was hoping to be at the sad obse- 
quies of your beloved wife, but was hindered from 
coming. So I take this mode of expressing our deepest 
sympathy with you in this time of dire trouble. We 
have talked much of what must have been the grief 
of parting from one so long your companion and 
helpmate. It must be a consolation that the paths 
are divergent only for a short time, and that then they 
meet at the gate. From the infinite source of comfort 
may there pour consolation into your lacerated heart ! 
My family join in the hope that you may be able to 
bear up under this domestic calamity. Commending 
you to God and the word of His grace, I am 
Yours, etc., 

T. De Witt Talmage. 

Rectory, St. Paul's Church, 
tivolion-hudson, n. y., 
May 8, 1882. 
Dear Friend: 

My daughter has just written me the sad intel- 
ligence of your grievous loss in life. To be de- 
prived of a chosen, faithful, and beloved companion 
who for many years has journeyed with us is a 
calamity in almost any view. It brings in so great a 
change, it cuts off so many threads, it leaves the web 
of our future here with a ragged edge. And yet it is 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. 1 63 

God's will, and the discipline of His providence all the 
way along is to bring us to the recognition that His 
will is not only law but loving-kindness. 

You know where to find consolation and support 
in your sore trial, and I pray that you may find all 
that you need and seek. In the Christian hope, with 
sympathy and regard, I remain 

[Rev.] G. L. Platt. 

Columbus, Miss. 

I must tell you of the love and sympathy that fills 
our hearts for you whom our mother loved so ten- 
derly. 

I know not how it is with those who are looking on 
life's western slopes, but to us who have scarcely 
reached the hill-tops it is hard to realize we are in 
the hands of a kind and tender Father who doth not 
willingly afiflict and yet knoius how hard these trials 
are to bear. Yet faith, hope, and love all tell us God 
doth not leave His own. Our loved ones are not dead. 
They are the living. 

Your friend, A. C. B. 

In the spring of 1872 the Alumnse Association 
formed at the close of the silver-wedding exercises, 
but so far existing only in name, was through the 
energy of some of its members resuscitated. 
Several meetings were held in the chapel, a con 
stitution was adopted, old graduates sought for, 
and a general social reunion arranged. 



164 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

Dr. Crittenden took great interest in all these 
proceedings notwithstanding the personal sorrows 
which were then gathering around his life, and he 
promised to be one of the few invited guests at 
the entertainment. 

Before the appointed time, however — May 27th 
— Mrs. Crittenden had passed away, and her 
bereaved husband did not feel equal to the task of 
meeting so many old and sympathizing friends. 
Instead he sent the following letter, which was 
read at the dinner-table, those present responding 
by adopting resolutions of appreciation and sym- 
pathy : 

May 26, 18S2. 

To the AlumjicE Association of the Packer Collegiate 
Institute. 

My Dear Children : Accept my thanks for your 
cordial invitation to lunch with you on Saturday, the 
27th inst. 

Could I meet you, no one who encouraged me at 
the start would be there to congratulate me as I near 
the goal — no trustee, no teacher, no assistant of any 
kind whatever : all have joined the long procession 
and are on the other side. 

Still you meet under circumstances of peculiar and, 
it seems to me, of intense interest. 

You are the representatives of more than two gen- 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. 1 65 

erations of time, and of thousands who have shared 
with you the advantages of this Institution. A sum- 
mary of what has been accomplished by your prede- 
cessors may not, at this time, be inappropriate or un- 
interesting to you. 

Previous to the present century female education, 
relative to intellectual development, had received 
almost no attention either in this country or abroad. 

In the early part of this century Mrs. Emma Wil- 
lard, of blessed memory, did more than any other 
individual of her day to arouse the attention of the 
public to the importance of female education. 

In 181 1 Chancellor Kent, John V. Henry, Gideon 
Havvley, and others of like culture, residents of Al- 
bany, desiring facilities for the higher education of 
their own daughters, formed an association, erected a 
building, and commenced operations. In 1820 more 
commodious buildings were erected, and the associa- 
tion was incorporated under the name of the Albany 
Female Academy. The Legislature gave it a small 
endowment, the first money ever devoted by them to 
female education. 

The late Chancellor Ferris of New York was for 
several years president of the Board of Trustees, and 
after his removal to the metropolis exerted his in- 
fluence in founding a similar institution in that city, 
known as the Rutgers Female Institute, now Rutgers 
College. 

In 1845 an institution formed under the same 
general plan was established in this city, and known 
as the Brooklyn Female Academ3^ 

Other institutions of a like character followed in 
•quick succession, all seeming to have a common 



1 66 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

origin ; so that you may consider yourselves as com- 
ing in a regular if not in an apostolic succession. 

In 1850 the following report was made to the stock- 
holders of the Brooklyn Female Academy : " The 
patronage of the Institution has far exceeded the most 
sanguine expectation of its friends, and in proof of 
this statement we are able to enumerate among the 
pupils who have sought the advantages of an edu- 
cation within its walls the representatives of nineteen 
different States of our Union, the Canadas, St. Thomas,. 
Trinidad, Cuba, Sandwich Islands, and England." 

In 1853 the building, with its library, chemical and 
astronomical apparatus, was destroyed by fire. 

In September of 1854, through the patronage of one 
of your own number, we were more eligibly located 
in our present beautiful edifice, and surrounded with 
greater facilities to aid us in our work. 

In 1871 the Alumnae celebrated its twenty-fifth 
anniversary. Of the six hundred and four graduates,, 
three hundred assembled in the chapel of the Insti- 
tute. Reports of the different members of the classes 
from 1847 to 187 1 were read, showing that many of 
them had become eminent as teachers, authors, mis- 
sionaries, etc. 

It certainly is a subject for gratitude and congratu- 
lation that while the world is circled with benign in- 
fluences flowing from this Institution, no graduate, sa 
far as I know, has ever disgraced herself or her Alma 
Mater. For nearly half a century the Packer Colle- 
giate Institute has by common consent been ac- 
knowledged to be the leading institution in the State,, 
if not in the country. Better endowed seminaries 
are opening all around us. What the future of our 



A SAD SPRING-TIME. 167 

beloved and cherished Packer shall be depends very 
largely upon the society you represent. 

With my best wishes for the health and happiness 
of you all — every one — I am, and ever shall be, 

Your friend, A. Crittenden. 

The following are the resolutions passed after 
the reading of the letter : 

Resolutions. 

Whereas, At a recent meeting of the Alumnae of the 
Packer Institute, it was unanimously voted that a 
committee be appointed to draft resolutions testify- 
ing our esteem for the Principal of the Institution, 
our continued and undiminished confidence in him, 
and our abiding interest in the welfare of the school ; 
therefore, 

Resolved, That we, the Alumnae, desire to express 
formally our respect and affection for Dr. Crittenden ; 
our appreciation of his life-long services in the cause 
of education, and of his devotion to the interests of 
the Packer Institute ; and our sense of personal obli- 
gation to him for intellectual stimulus and moral 
inspiration. 

Resolved, That we retain a warm interest in our 
Alma Mater, the influence of whose wise teachings 
and faithful guidance in the past will be with us 
always ; and that we fully confide in the helpful wis- 
dom and ability of those associated with the Principal 
in the conduct of the school to assure its continuing 
and increasing usefulness in the future. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be trans- 
mitted to Dr. Crittenden, and also be recorded in 
the minutes of the Association. 

E. B. McEwEN, President. 

M. E. WiNSLOw, Vice-President. 

Fanny Elkins, Treasurer. 

M. C. Leffingwell, Secretary. 



1 68 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 



CHAPTER X. 



A GARNERED SHEAF. 



The Professor's Illness — Death in the Home — Last Visit to Wash- 
ington — Last Visit to the Packer — Fading Away — The End — 
Journalistic Eulogiums — The Last Obsequies. 

T~\R. CRITTENDEN spent that last summer 
and autumn chiefly at his country home at 
Englewood ; taking short trips in various direc- 
tions, and making visits among his old Berkshire 
friends. His remaining brother, Alvan, was in a 
precarious state of health, and his solicitude for 
him is expressed in many of his home letters. He 
appears also to have been exceedingly anxious for 
the comfort of a nephew who was also in delicate 
health, and who he feared was not lodged with 
sufficient warmth and luxury to suit his enfeebled 
condition. In a letter written as autumn draws 
on he suggests extensive alterations to his neph- 
ew's house, and says they cafi be done ; " if ten 
men cannot do the work, employ fifty ;" and he 



A GARNERED SHEAF. 1 69 

adds, " Draw on me for money to pay the bill. 
Do this rather than suffer yourself and let your 
family." In a still later letter he writes, although 
in the midst of describing his own home sorrows : 

" Don't send me my interest till you have got 
into your new house and have money to invest." 

The summer's rest and change in some measure 
recuperated the old man's health and spirits, and 
when he took his accustomed place at the opening 
of the fall term there seemed to be no reason 
why he should not continue to occupy it for 
several years longer. The Institution had been 
thoroughly renovated during the summer vaca- 
tion ; steam-heaters and the most approved venti- 
lating apparatus introduced; the pupils at the 
opening were more numerous than ever, and all 
things gave promise of an exceedingly prosperous 
year. 

The first shadow was Professor Eaton's illness. 
He had had one violent attack during the pre- 
ceding spring, and being obHged to visit the city 
frequently in order to superintend the alterations 
through the summer, he had no chance of recu- 
peration. Again and again during the autumn he 



170 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

was compelled to be absent from his duties for 
several days together, and at Thanksgiving time 
broke down entirely. By the advice of his 
physicians he was sent to the mountains of North 
Carolina, and has not since resumed his place. 

So sensitive a nature as Dr. Crittenden's 
could not but feel this continued suffering of one 
so dear and so intimately associated with him 
very deeply, all the more as he realized his own 
incapacity for extra work. 

Professor W. Le Conte Stevens was, on recom- 
mendation of Mr. Eaton, engaged to supply his 
place during his absence. He proved amply com- 
petent to perform all his duties, but still it was 
hard for the octogenarian who for almost sixty 
years had stood at the head of an institution to 
realize that its administration could glide along 
easily and successfully from day to day deprived 
of the supervision of one of its legitimate gov- 
ernors, and he felt anxious and troubled as the 
days passed by. 

And now the home cares and sorrows multi- 
plied, and the last shadows closed in. 

On October 19th, Edward, the eldest grandson. 



A GARNERED SHEAF. 1 71 

was attacked with diphtheria, and after eleven 
days' illness died, leaving sad hearts behind him, 
especially that of the grandfather, to whom he 
had been a child of great promise, and to whom, 
as he was now almost nine years old, he was an in- 
teresting companion. Dr. Crittenden did not 
see Edward during his illness, as he still continued 
to attend to his duties in the Packer every day. 

But in three weeks after the death of the eldest, 
little Margaret, the *' precious pearl " to whom 
one of his letters was addressed, sickened with 
the same disease, and almost simultaneously it ap- 
peared in his granddaughter Bessie Dana, and 
two weeks latter little Alonzo — "Alonzo the 
brave," as his grandfather called him — had a simi- 
lar though slight attack. 

A general alarm was now felt throughout the 
school and the community, so many families of 
which were represented therein, and by advice 
of physicians Dr. Crittenden ceased his daily 
attendance, and the other children were sent 
to a boarding-house, at which they remained for 
over a month. Their brother died October 30th, 
and was buried the 31st, on his ninth birthday. 



172 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

In a letter dated November 20th the sad grand- 
father detailed these domestic sorrows to his 
nephew, adding : 

" With the blessing of the good Father, we hope 
all will be well. He is too wise needlessly to 
afflict. Pray that we may have grace and faith to 
say, ' Thy will be done.' . . . Your uncle Alvan 
cannot last long : and then of a family of ten I am 
alone, — but only for a day." 

A few days later he wrote to the same : 

" We are all passing rapidly to the unseen coun- 
try ; we cannot tell who will be called next. It is 
of no consequence if we are prepared. I had a 
violent attack of my old complaint, want of breath, 
last night, and it did not seem as though I should 
see the morning. These scenes of sickness and 
death have completely unnerved me, and one 
straw more will be too much for the camel's 
back." 

Indeed, the gloom of the house, the loneliness to 
which his social nature was condemned, his sorrow 
for his grandchild, and the enforced separation 
from all his customary duties and interests, told 
very heavily upon a constitution enfeebled by age 



A GARNERED SHEAF. 1/3 

and sorrow. On one of the rare occasions when 
his daughter-in-law was able to leave her nursery 
cares and amid her own sorrows seek to lighten 
his, he told her he had never in his long life 
so thoroughly appreciated what it was to be 
lonely. 

He had one attack of his old trouble — as he sup- 
posed — on November 14th, and another, mentioned 
above, on the 25th. The physicians afterwards 
concluded that both were connected with the heart- 
trouble of which he finally died. 

It was therefore thought best that Dr. Critten- 
den should accompany his old friend Professor 
Eaton as far as Washington on his Southern 
journey. 

He was accompanied by his eldest granddaugh- 
ter, and was quite interested in her enjoyment of 
this her first visit to the Nation's Capital. 

From here he wrote the following letter to his 
two remaining grandsons. It is of great interest, 
as showing the wonderful elasticity of spirits and 
the perpetual spring of the ever-young heart 
which could thus in the midst of its own lone- 
liness, weakness, and sorrow draw upon its un- 



174 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

failing resources to interest and amuse little chil- 
dren. 

Washington, D.C, December 8, 1882. 
My Dear Little Namesake and his Dimpled Brother. 

My Young Heroes : You were noble boys to be so 
good and brave for nearly three weeks. I trust you 
both will be prepared to meet any other emergency 
with equal fortitude. We all did miss you so much : 
but it was harder for you than for us. How delight- 
ful it will be for us all to be together once more \ 
Yes ! all but dear grandma and dear Edward. They, 
we trust, are with the precious Saviour and with the 
angels, where there is no sickness, no death. Let us 
live in hope that we may by and by all be together 
where there is no sorrow. 

I am quite confined to the house on account of this 
terribly cold weather. Kittie [his granddaughter] is 
out sight-seeing, and there is a great deal to see in 
Washington. This is a beautiful city, the capital of 
a great nation of over 50,000,000 people. The Capi/t*/ 
was intended to be the centre of the Qdc<^\tal. How is 
this ? Ask mamma. 

This building, the Capitol, covers six times as much 
ground as there is in the Packer grounds where you 
play. [Here follows a minute description of the 
Capitol and of other public buildings in Washington,] 

But I cannot tell you anything more. I trust you 
will take a good look at all when one of you comes as 
the President and the other as Secretary of State. 

[Here follow directions as to the care of the bulbs 
in the Institute garden, winter arrangements in the 
home, etc.] 



A GARNERED SHEAF. 175 

It is SO cold that I am forced to keep the house. 
Prof. Eaton is not quite so well. 

God bless you all, every one. Grandpa. 

Shortly before the " holidays" the patriarch re- 
turned, and once more gathered his broken family 
around him. The reunion was sweet though sad, 
and some other relatives were invited to spend 
Christmas. 

The daily letters which from the time of his 
return were either written or dictated to Pro- 
fessor Eaton, give so graphic a picture of the 
last days of the writer that we cannot resist the 
temptation to present our readers with copious 
extracts : 

Sunday, December loth. 
We are at home again, the best place of all the 
world, and — thanks to a kind Providence — all to- 
gether once more. Thank the Good Father with us. 
. . . I feel considerable of my short breath and a little 
faintness, indicating you know what. . . , Am in the 
right place. It was well, very well that we came home. 
. . . You are a poor wanderer, and you will not find 
the place you are looking for till you get back to 
Brooklyn — charming Brooklyn, full of friends and no 
enemies — not one. 

December nth. 
It was a good thing for me to come home just at 
this time. All is well at the Packer, but it is time 



1/6 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. . 

that some one should speak with more authority than 

a substitute. . . . T. M 's eldest son is very sick ; 

prayers in church were offered for him morning and 

evening. How much trouble the M 's have had ! 

I should think Mr. M would abandon the place. 

But sickness and death know no place. Thanks to 
God, there is a place where there are no sorrow, no 
sickness, no death. 

December i6th. 
Ever since I returned from Washington I have had 
premonitions of a return of my Lakewood trouble. 
This morning I arose at one o'clock, and am alive. 
The fact is, I did really think my days were not only 
numbered, as I still think, but from very fear took a 
carriage this morning and went to see Dr. Clark. 
Like a New England schoolmaster, he told me to take 
my coat off and went through me till he exclaimed, 
"Eureka!" He thinks it is the same old trouble, and 
he seems to think the same old medicine will relieve 
me. I trust I shall be able to keep my bed to-night 
till two o'clock. . . . When shall we find rest? One 
week more and the old year will give place to another, 
it may be of greater trials. Next Friday will be pay- 
day. Shall I deposit your check or send it to you ? 

December 23d. 

Give my kind regards to , especially to Mr. and 

and Mrs. Randall, whom we met abroad and who were 
great favorites of Mrs. Crittenden, who is waiting on 
the other side for them and for us. 

As " murder will out," I may as well tell you frankly 



A GARNERED SHEAF. IJJ 

as to have you find it out in a roundabout way that 
I have not kept my word with you. I am sick and 
have to borrow K.'s hand to reply to your letter. 
Yesterday I sat up just long enough to have my bed 
made, and to-day I arose a little before twelve o'clock. 
Matters come on so well at the Institute that the con- 
viction might be forced upon us that we are not nearly 
as important as we may have fancied. It might be 
true in one case, but it certainly would not be in the 
other. 

Yesterday the machine closed for the year under a 
great clash of trumpets. The President, his Honor 
the Mayor, Judge Van Cott, Dr. Hall of the Holy 
Trinity, and others were present, and are said to have 
enjoyed it. I was in bed, and of course had a good 
time. . . . Mrs. Packer was greatly delighted, and 
when she is pleased all are pleased. During the day 
Mr. Low made me quite a long visit. I told him 
I had received several petitions that the holiday vaca- 
tion should be prolonged one day. Of course he 
granted the petition. 

On Christmas Day Dr. Crittenden had an- 
other attack, differing slightly from those which 
had preceded it, which his family think was in the 
nature of paralysis, as ever after that time it seemed 
difficult for him to speak distinctly. 

All through the week he continued to be very 
miserable, not rising in the morning till a late hour, 
though remaining with the family the rest of the 



178 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

day. His letters thus tell the history of the 
' holiday" week : 

December 29th. 

Mrs. Eaton seems to be now as always doing the 
right thing at the right time. I don't mean in send- 
ing us flowers of such exquisite beauty and fragrance. 
The receipt of these has or should have been acknowl- 
edged, for they were exceedingly beautiful, and what 
seems to be peculiar was the continuance of their 
freshness and aroma. You must have breathed upon 
them before they were sent. By the bye, I thank you 
for reporting the state of the weather; it has quite re- 
lieved me from performing that sort of duty here, as 
I observe from day to day that your thermometer 
corresponds with ours. Did you not make a mistake 
and take one of ours with you? The young Professor 
is sitting by and smiles a little incredulously at the 
suggestion, thinking perhaps it may not account for 
the phenomenon. He is a little puzzled to reconcile 
my solution of the fact that your barometer makes 
the weight of the air very different from ours. I, how- 
ever, account for it from the desire I know you to have, 
very pre-eminently, to rise in the world. The young 
Professor says there is one barometer you have cer- 
tainly carried with you — a plucky spirit — and that 
keeps you mounted on an elevation that indicates a 
certainty of your surmounting all present troubles. 

You must value this letter especially from the cir- 
cumstances under which it is written. K. is acting as 
amanuensis; I am in bed dictating; Professor S. is on 
the other side laughing at the nonsense; B. is at the 
foot of the bed, wondering that grandpa being so old 
and sick should be so foolish. 



A GARNERED SHEAF. 1 79 

January i, 1883. 

You certainly know without being told that this is 
a New Year, bright and beautiful and fresh as though 
it was the first day of the first one that ever lighted up 
this glorious earth. No clouds above, no fogs below, 
perfect temperature, and heart-greetings from all sides. 
St. Ann's chimes rang out the old and rang in the 
new, and now all seems to be ready for warm con- 
gratulations; at any rate I am, in the middle of my 
large bed on my back, dictating a letter to our loved 
absent ones. . . . How I wish we could see you and 
give you a New Year's greeting! Let us hope that at 
no distant future we may meet face to face and thank 
the Lord for His tender mercy and loving-kind- 
ness. ... 

We are surrounded by a vast many things to cheer 
us. In spite of all, however, the memories of the last 
year throw a very deep shadow all around us; but for 
these I think I could say with Mr. B. after the loss of 
his wife, " Till now life has been a poem." 

I know that I should feel that all the past, however 
fraught with all that this life can give, is not to be 
compared with those scenes which no eye hath seen, 
no ear hath heard, neither hath it entered into the 
heart of man to conceive, and which are reserved for 
those that love Him. May I not feel that I have your 
prayers that all these mists which obscure the future 
may pass away ? 

On the morning of January 3d, to the great 
surprise of all, he rose early, dressed, and came 
down to breakfast, announcing his intention of 



l80 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

being present at morning prayers the opening 
day of school for the new year. 

In vain his daughter and niece both endeavored 
to dissuade him; and the latter, seeing he was re- 
solved upon the hazardous experiment, sent for Mr. 
Low, who carefully assisted his old friend down 
the steps and along the few yards of pavement 
which lay between his home and the Institute. 
He was terribly exhausted with the climb up the 
many stairs to the chapel, and when there was 
hardly able to speak. However, he read in a 
tremulous voice from the 17th to the 27th verse of 
John, 17th chapter, sitting meanwhile in an arm- 
chair and uttering a few words of New Year's 
greeting. 

The service, which to most of those present was 
one of painful interest, was soon over, and kind 
hands were ready at once to assist the honored 
Principal back to his home. He made no resist- 
ance ; perhaps he felt, in spite of his natural elas- 
ticity, that he had stood in his old place for the 
last time. 

His audience did not think so; but now they 
are glad to remember that the last time he walked 



A GARNERED SHEAF. lZ\ 

from his own door it should have been to the 
accustomed place of duty which he had visited 
almost daily for over thirty years. He never 
went out again ; he only appeared in the chapel 
once more : but that time he was carried rever- 
ently up the long staircases and laid gently be- 
neath golden sheaves of ripened grain, surrounded 
as he had loved to be by young and friendly faces, 
while the words of prayer from the desk above his 
upturned, face were spoken by other lips than his. 
The following js his own account of that last 
chapel service. 

January 3d. 

I have just come in from the chapel. In going 
over I encountered various obstacles — formidable 
ones. Rank No. i, plucky little Mary j^his niece]| 
then came Margaret, and Fanny. Mr. Low met me in 
the hall, gave me, his arm and a cordial New Year's 
greeting. They were just ready to read the Scriptures. 
The school was well represented, I gave the scholars 
my own and your congratulations, told them I had 
felt constrained to reject their application for an 
extra day, but had referred it not to a kinder but to 
a more generous heart, and, that I was happy to see 
that they had not abused the indulgence. Mr. Low 
made a very appropriate and timely address, and then 
gave me his arm again and said he was going to see 
me home. 



1 82 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

During the next day Dr. Crittenden remained 
in bed, " not," he says in his daily bulletin to Mr. 
Eaton, " that there is any particular reason for it, 
for I am as well as yesterday, and better, but it is 
an easy way to spend the morning and the only 
way to keep my nieces in anything like good 
humor." 

The next, January 5th, he wrote : " I did not go 
to the chapel this morning, though I am stronger 
and better able than yesterday : but yesterday was 
New Year's and to-day is not. I am certainly 
better than yesterday, though I must confess to 
you I feel miserable to-day." 

Later his niece, who acted as his amanuensis, 
added the following postscript to the letter : 

" Uncle has felt very faint all the morning, 
owing, I think, to his dressing, shaving, and com- 
ing downstairs before breakfast. The doctor is 
coming to-day, and I shall ask him about it. 
Uncle is one of the men, as you know, who does 
not learn from experience regarding his strength. 
If we could only make him careful, I think he 
could get as well as he was last summer ; but he 
is very feeble and requires the greatest care." 



A GARNERED SHEAF. 1 83 

On the 6th he wrote : " I cannot bear the least 
fatigue ; I don't believe I could write a letter of 
four pages to save my life." 

On the morning of January 3d Alonzo Crit- 
tenden's life-work closed, and during the twenty 
days which remained he was rapidly drifting 
towards the end. His mind was clear till almost 
the last, as was evidenced by the daily letters 
which he either wrote or dictated to his friend 
and colleague Professor Eaton : 

January gth. 
Though I am comfortable to-day, I am almost at the 
giving-up point. I am sorry to tell you all this, but I 
was resolved to let you know the facts as they really 
exist. As I have contemplated the prospect of leaving 
the dear ones dependent upon me, I have felt exceed- 
ingly anxious to consult you once more. If we both 
get better I may wish to write you confidentially. In 
the mean time it is our duty to place ourselves entirely 
in the hands of the loving Father and say, " Thy will 
be done." 

He made his business arrangements calmly and 
with his usual judgment ; he received and greatly 
enjoyed the visits of his friends ; he even wrote a 
note to his old friend Mrs. D., thanking her for a 
call which he had greatly enjoyed. He sent for 



l84 ALONZO C/HTTENDEN. 

«omc friends and former pupils whom he had not 
seen for some time, talked with them earnestly, 
and bade them an affectionate ^ood-by. He 
spoke of his " decease which he should accomplish" 
with perfect fearlessness; for what has he wljo 
has trusted his Saviour for over sixty years to do 
with fear when that Saviour at last sends the sum- 
mons to " come up higher" ? 

About the middle of Ja^iuary i-*rofessor Eaton 
became alarmingly ill. Dr. Ckittenden was 
greatly distressed not only at his friend's condi- 
tion, but also at his own inability to go to his bed- 
side. He at once dictated the following : 

January lolh. 
" M. has just read rnc your letter of January 7th, and 
I am very greatly distressed. In my last letter I told 
you frankly and fully what seemed to be my true con- 
dition, and I am exceedingly glad that you tell me now 
the worst of yours, ... I am rejoiced to know that 
you feel safe in the arms of the blessed Father and 
are at peace. It 'is our daily prayer that the blessed 
Lord wljoscourgelh every son whom He rcceiveth may 
■soon restore you to health and to your position of 
usefulness. 

... If I were well, you would see me on the arrival 
•of the next express. 



A GAUNEKED SHEAF. 1 8$ 

{)ii the- iith lir stilt a tc-U'i;iain to Ashcvillc 
with llu- wonls, "Mow IS I'rolcssor Eaton? 
Whom shall I sciul to you?" ami (olloui-d it with 
a note ill which he ollctccl to semi somr one on. 

" Yon neeil," he says, "some one with you, ami 
I want you to sav which one ol your liiemls it 
shall he. W'e are all with yon in spirit, but you 
()Uj;ht to have some one in bodily presence." 

The nieee who watched over him so tenderly 
said that her uiuU', allliouj,;li «;iadiially >j;aiuin«^, 
liad been thrown back aj^ain by his anxiety tor his 
associate; but he still thought himselt growing 
better, and wrote on the uth, " I am jj^aininjif at 
the: rati- ot ten knots an hour, and expect to be at 
school on ^h)lulay provided 1 can get a j;ood 
nij^ht's sleep." 

ICviMi while diitalini;" these words the siek man 
was so weak that he dn)pped asleep several tinu-s, 
and in a lew days his hope ol aj^ain resuming his 
place failed away. tXuiI the next day he wrote: 
*' 1 am constrained to say that 1 an> on my back, 
witli no prospect that 1 lan set; t)l evet beint; at 
my work aj;ain." 
i A temporary improvement in the condition ol 



1 86 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

the absent invalid called forth the two following 
notes : 

January 13th. 

Cheer after cheer ! Both telegrams received. How 
much better it is than waiting three days for a letter ! 
Only now write in the major key every time. . . . 
The days come and go, with me at least, in a most 
sad monotony. We had a little variety last night in 
calling Dr. Speir at three o'clock. I really gave the 
people a little fright. Not so, however, the doctor. 
As a matter of taste I have kept my bed until this 
moment, 3.15 p.m., and I am now dictating my daily 
letters, which with others of the same class might bet- 
ter be termed weakly. 

January 14th. 

We have another Sabbath; and though the earth is 
wrapped in clouds, I trust the sky above them is clear 
and beautiful to your eyes of faith and peaceful trust. 
The last night has been to me one of great suffering, 
but I am better this morning, and I hope to hear that 
you are a great deal better. . . . How I wish I could 
see you, if but for an hour ! 

The last clear intelligible letter which Dr. 
Crittenden dictated bears the date of January 
i6th. It is full of business details and wise advice, 
and closes with the following: 

January i6th. 
Yesterday was a very arduous, solemn, and thought- 
ful day. I found it necessary from various circum- 
stances to review my will, and I need not tell you it 



.■i GARXERED SHEAF. 1 87 

cost me an effort for which I found myself illy pre- 
pared. But it is done, and I trust finally — not exactly 
satisfactorily. . . . Your accounts are just as mine are 
not, always in order, and so send for j^our rents at any 
time. . . . The cheerful accounts received from your- 
selves and your physician in relation to your health 
have spread a silver lining over the whole atmosphere. 
See that you keep it (the lining) bright. The exam- 
inations in physical sciences under the young Pro- 
fessor have just closed. I have not received reports of 
the success except from K., who passed ninety-two 
and is much delighted. 

"A sudden pull up," as Weller would say. 

As always, 

A. Crittenden. 

One more attempt was made January 17th, but 
it is a little flighty ; the ready writer made one 
more illegible attempt to write with his own hand, 
and then laid down his pen, and the daily bulletins 
were thenceforth dictated by another brain. 

Professor Stevens, in the exquisite little sketch 
which he has contributed for this volume, has 
drawn a picture of these sunset hours, which his 
faithful and devoted kindness and attention amply 
qualified him to do. Other friends have testified 
of the brightness of that sick-room, but they are 
the nearest and the dearest, and their reminiscen- 
ces are too sacred to appear in print. 



1 88 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

In spite of the weakness and prostration ot that 
first school-morning of the year, and in spite of the 
frequent attacks of pain, difficult breathing, and 
faintness — chronicled in these letters — the sick man 
lingered on until almost the end of the month, ral- 
lying so much at times that some hopes were en- 
tertained of his temporary recovery. He in- 
structed his son to bid good-by to his associates 
in the Packer, and continued to express great 
anxiety concerning Professor Eaton's condition. 
But a few days before January 23d he had another 
attack of partial paralysis, which rendered the 
meaning of all he said from that time exceedingly 
doubtful. 

Dr. Crittenden was a little delirious at times 
for a week before his death, but insisted upon get- 
ting up each day and being dressed. On Monday, 
the day before he died, he walked unaided into his 
daughter's room, and even started to go down- 
stairs, apparently, however, changing his plan in 
order to make a last arrangement for the comfort 
of the dear ones he was leaving behind. And this 
IS a touching instance of his life-long habit of 
caring for and arranging for others, strong in 



A GARNERED SHEAF. 1 89 

almost the very hour of death. Turning from the 
stairs, he feebly tottered into the little room at the 
end of the hall, which he used as a study. Here 
he had a fearful fit of exhaustion ; and when he had 
in some degree recovered, managed to say to his 
son, in broken words and sentences, that ready 
money would be needed by the family before his 
will could be acted upon, and that to save trouble 
and embarrassment he wished to put his signature 
to a check. 

His son endeavored to put him off with the as- 
surance that there was money enough on hand, 
etc. But Alonzo Crittenden had been for 
seventy years in the habit of having his wishes 
attended to and his purposes carried out. He 
seemed so distressed that Mr. Edward Crittenden 
procured a paper and proceeded to write out the 
form of a draft. 

When it was finished, the trembling hand was 
reached out for paper and pen to sign the name 
for the last time. The A was distinct and charac- 
teristic ; so was the C, with its sweeping curve 
below the line, so familiar to all who have seen it 
at the end of notes or on diplomas ; but then the 



IQO ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

letters began to run together, and the pen dropped 
from the trembling fingers, which were never 
again to resume it ; for it is not to the glorified 
ones of his new abode that the command was 
given, '■'Writer 

"Just before the last," writes the daughter who 
watched so affectionately over him, *' when his 
speech was so indistinct that we could scarcely 
understand him, he tried to repeat that beautiful 
hymn, 

" ' Just as I am, without one plea, 
But that Thy blood was shed for me.' 

I understood a word or two, and, repeating the 
hymn, said, ' Father, is that what you wanted to 
say ? ' and he smiled and nodded his head." 

" Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. 
Even so, saith the Spirit ; for they rest from their 
labors ; and their works do follow them." 

Alonzo Crittenden rested from his labors 
January 23d. His works are still following him. 



A GARNERED SHEAF. I9I 

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Tuesday evening, 
January 23, 1884, contained an editorial of which 
the opening sentence was, " Brooklyn has lost a 
valuable citizen and a successful educator by the 
death of Professor Crittenden." A long eulo- 
gium of the teacher's profession followed, with the 
words, " Honor to the educators of America. 
They are more than statesmen. The}' make the 
men and women who make the homes which make 
the land. Their reward is not in ' storied urn or 
animated bust,' in long obituary or Latin epitaph, 
but in the grateful memories of those whom they 
have taught and who under their patient teaching 
have ceased to do evil and learned to do well. It 
is no mere obituary sentiment to say that the grief 
felt for Dr. Crittenden's death in hundreds of 
Brooklyn homes to-day is sincere, and that many 
an old pupil of his will shed a grateful tear upon 
the memory of what he did for them." 

The same paper contained an announcement of 
the death, which occurred at a quarter before 
seven that morning, with a sketch of his life and 
public services, correct in the main. The Tri- 
bune, Times, World, Sun, and Herald, of New 



192 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

York, and several Albany papers contained sim- 
ilar notices. 

The U. S. flags on the City Hall and other 
public buildings Av^ere also lowered to half-mast 
— a great honor to be shown to a private 
citizen. 

The pupils and teachers were informed of the 
death of their Principal, at the morning opening ex- 
ercises, by Mr. A. A. Low, President of the Board 
of Trustees, after which the school was dismissed. 
The announcement was unexpected and the end 
seemed to have come suddenly, although their old 
friend had been ill so long, and the girls went away 
silently and in tears. In the evening a special 
meeting of the Trustees was held in the library to 
take action regarding the death of the Principal 
and make arrangements concerning the funeral 
ceremonies. Mr. Low called the meeting to order 
and spoke in feeling and eulogistic terms of the 
long, honorable, and useful career of the deceased. 
A minute and resolution were then presented by 
Judge J. M. Van Cott, which were unanimously 
adopted by the Board. They will be found in the 
Appendix. 



A GARNERED SHEAF. I93 

The next morning a memorial meeting, largely 
attended by both scholars and friends, was held 
in the chapel. The chair and desk for so many 
years occupied by the Principal were heavily 
draped with mourning. In front was a sheaf of 
golden wheat tied together with violets ; this de- 
sign being suggested and arranged by the gradu- 
ating class. Mr. Low conducted the services and 
Professor S. Lazar directed the music. After the 
usual processional hymn sung by the school, Mr. 
Low read the same Scripture selections which Mr. 
Crittenden had read on the morning of January 
3d. The hymn *' Paradise" followed, with prayer 
by Rev. Dr. Lansing, — one of the oldest and most 
constant friends of the Institution and its head, and 
since gone to join his old friend. The announce- 
ment of the funeral to be held in the chapel on Fri- 
day afternoon was read with the minute of the 
Board, and the hymn "Jerusalem the Golden" 
sung, after which the scholars were dismissed until 
the following Monday. 

At the close of the exercises the Faculty and 
teachers of the Institution held a meeting and 
adopted a preamble and resolutions expressive of 



194 ALOiVZO CRITTENDEN. 

sorrow, resignation, and sympathy with the be- 
reaved family in this common affliction. 

A special meeting of the Associate Alumnae was 
held in the laboratory in the afternoon, at which 
Mrs. M. A. S. Kitchell presided. There was an 
unusually large attendance, which was especially 
marked as the notice was necessarily so short. It 
was decided that the members of the Association, 
and all other old graduates who desired to do 
so, should attend the funeral in a body, wearing 
mourning badges. A series of resolutions was 
then adopted. 

Similar meetings were held at the Polytechnic 
Institute and Adelphi Academy, and at each a copy 
of resolutions was adopted and a committee ap- 
pointed to attend the funeral and represent the 
Institution. 

On Friday afternoon of January 26th the chapel 
of the Packer was filled with a mournful assem- 
blage, all anxious to pay a last tribute of respect to 
one so widely known in^the'community'and so in- 
timately associated with much;^of j its family life 
In consequence of the limited accommodations the 
younger departments of the school had been ex- 



A GARiVERED SHEAF. 1 95 

cused from attendance, but seats on the left of the 
platform and organ were reserved for the Collegi- 
ate and first and second Academic Departments, 
containing perhaps two hundred girls, to whom, 
under the direction of Professor Lazar, was com- 
mitted the charge of the music. 

Two hundred of the Alumnae were seated in the 
gallery to the left, while on the side of the platform 
nearest them seats were reserved for the Trustees. 
The mourning drapery still remained, and several 
beautiful floral gifts were added by the teachers, 
scholars, and alumuce. 

At almost the same hour as that at which on Fri- 
day afternoons he had so man}' years sat on the 
platform and watched the long files of girls as they 
came into the chapel for the weekly reading of 
compositions, we sat and watched the procession 
of ministers and pall-bearers, who comprised the 
whole Board of Trustees, as they reverently bore 
to the platform the silent form of the Principal and 
laid it just where the afternoon sunshine slanting 
through the western window had so often fallen 
upon the young heads to whose crude effusions he 
had lent such indulgent attention. 



196 ALONZO CRITTENDEN. 

We could not but feel that it was just what he 
would have desired, and that we had his pleased 
appreciation of all that we did. 

The upturned face, visible in its uncovered 
coffin, surmounted by soft hair in which eighty- 
two winters had sowed only a few threads of 
silver, looked thin and showed marks of both 
mental and bodily suffering, but the expression 
was one of peace, and it seemed as though the 
still lips must open to give directions or take some 
part in the exercises. 

The Rev. Dr. Storrs, Dr. Crittenden's pastor, 
conducted the services, read the Scriptures, and 
made the principal address; the Rev. Dr. H. M. 
Booth of Englewood, Dr. Crittenden's summer 
home, spoke also and very eloquently concerning 
the early years of his friend, and his unswerv- 
ing fidelity to Christianity. The Rev. Dr. S. I. 
Prime, senior editor of the New York Observer, 
offered the closing prayer. 

The hymns sung by the young ladies were 
from the Chapel Hymnal compiled by Professor 
Lazar, and dedicated to " Alonzo Crittenden, 
A.M., Ph.D." They were all his special favorites : 



A GARNERED SHEAF. 1 9/ 

"Rock of Ages," "Just as I Am," "My Faith 
looks up to Thee," and "Abide with Me." 

After the close of the last hymn the personal 
friends and family took leave of their dead, and 
then the scholars and alumnae one by one passed 
round the coffin and took a last look at the familiar 
face and form which had been such an important 
factor in so many of their lives. It was quite sun- 
set now, and it took very little exercise of imagina- 
tion to fancy we could hear the familiar voice "far 
up the height" saying, as so often before, " Culture, 
character, happiness, success, heaven itself, is of- 
fered to your acquisition^ not acceptance T 



APPENDIX. 



I. 



Many tributes to Dr. Crittenden's character, 
abilities, and success have been sent to the writer 
of this memorial. Where they bore directly upon 
the story as it was being told, they have been 
incorporated in the body of the work. Others 
seemed either more complete in themselves or 
more general in their nature, and these she has 
thought best to group together. 



APPENDIX. 201 



By Dr. S. I. Prime, of the New York Observer. 

The Rev. S. Irenseus Prime, D.D., was a lifetime 
friend of Mr. Crittenden, and was one of those 
who took part in the funeral services. In a letter 
to the editor of this volume Dr. Prime sajs : 

" Of all the men with whom I have been in- 
timately acquainted, I do not now remember 
one who was more useful and successful as a 
teacher of young women. There was a charm in 
his manner that fascinated and inspired, so that 
his pupils were not only delighted with their 
study, but stimulated to their highest capacity 
in the pursuit of knowledge. It was a real pleas- 
ure to me to be called in to the examination of 
his classes in mental science, and to notice at once 
the proficiency of the pupils who had fairly 
grasped the subjects and were able to impart an 
intelligent view to others, and also to observe the 
extreme desire of the Professor to help the halting 
young lady and enable her to present the best 
possible appearance before the committee. 

" Such was the kindliness of his nature that he 
won the hearts while he was guiding the minds ol 
those who sat at his feet. 

" I have been with him in festal seasons, when 
marriage - bells made the home merry and his 
heart was full of gladness : and again and again 
when death darkened the house and sorrow filled 



202 APPENDIX. 

all hearts. In every circumstance, he was the 
same trustful, hoping, loving Christian friend. 
We shall not see the like of him again. He de- 
serves to be held in memory and honor as one of 
the most accomplished and successful educators 
of our country and age. And it is good to know 
that such influences as he exerted will not die with 
him nor with his pupils, but by them will be trans- 
mitted to generations yet to be. 

"Samuel Iren^us Prime." 




APPENDIX. 203 



By Professor W. L. Stevens of the Packer 
Collegiate Institute. 

In giving my brief tribute to the memory of Dr. 
Crittenden it is due at the outset to remark that 
my acquaintance with him began just as he was 
about to leave forever the scenes with which his 
life was identified. Three months after our first 
meeting, the grave was opened and the aged 
worker was consigned to rest. 

In October, 1882, I was called upon to assume 
the duties in Packer Institute which had been per- 
formed by one who for thirty years was the asso- 
ciate and warm personal friend of Dr. Crit- 
tenden. I had known each of these men 
only by reputation. Involuntarily we form 
mental pictures of those whom we have never 
seen, and often the feeling is that of disappoint- 
ment when we come into contact with the living 
man and throw aside the ideal. I had heard 
of Dr. Crittenden as one who had spent near- 
ly threescore years in the actual work of edu- 
cation ; and I expected to see a tottering old man, 
white-headed, stern, opinionated, and more or less 
saturated with the dogmatism that too often grows 
out of long-continued rule. On meeting him there 
was indeed disappointment, but it was of a pleasant 
kind. I was introduced to one who seemed to be 
not over sixty years of age, with but few gray 



204 APPENDIX. 

hairs, kind and genial in manner, lively and com- 
panionable, quick at repartee, evidently fond of 
young society, and in some respects younger in 
spirit than myself. His greeting was cordial, and 
at once I received evidence of his wish that I 
should be not merely an associate but also a friend. 

These first impressions were conveyed despite 
the fact that Dr. Crittenden's life had been but 
recently clouded with a great domestic sorrow in 
the loss of his wife. When conversation ceased 
his face assumed a perceptibly sad expression, but 
this was dispelled as soon as the interests of the 
moment suggested interchange of thought. It was 
evidently not natural to him, but only the product 
of recent affliction. He was indeed then passing 
through an ordeal of sorrow. The angel of death 
was again hovering over the stricken household* 
and two days after my arrival my new-found friend 
came to me to announce the death of his grand- 
child, a noble boy whom he loved with all the ten- 
derness of his affectionate nature. He sought 
sympathy as naturally as he gave it. The expe- 
rience of fourscore years had not made him any 
more self-sufficient, any more independent of fellow- 
feeling in joy or sorrow, than in the days of youth 
when the emotions are apt to surge in warmth. 
On the contrary, his emotional nature seemed to 
have been cultivated as well as disciplined. In 
committing to the dust all that remained of his 
favorite grandson, he grieved almost like a mother 
at the loss of her only child. 

It was but a few weeks after this occurrence that 



APPENDIX. 205 

Dr. Crittenden began to be confined to his room 
by the illness which terminated his life. Of him as 
a teacher and an administrator I can therefore say 
little. There are others who will do him justice 
in these relations. His failing health made it im- 
possible to assume active duty, and my acquaintance 
was only with him as the aged pilgrim approaching 
the goal which he knew to be not far away. Even 
at the beginning of his illness he seemed convinced 
that the end was near at hand, and he faced it with 
calmness and resignation, though life had not lost 
its attractions. My visits to the sick-chamber were 
frequent, and his inquiries always showed that, even 
if his days were almost numbered, his active inte- 
rest in the welfare of the Packer Institute should 
never flag. His native elasticity of spirit made 
him cheerful and companionable whenever friends 
could be admitted ; and occasionally he seemed even 
to indulge the hope of recovery. 

Throughout this illness the characteristics of Dr. 
Crittenden which most impressed me were his 
tenderness of heart, his refined gentleness, his fidel- 
ity to the Packer and all that was connected with 
it. Other qualities he possessed in a marked de- 
gree, qualities which fitted him for conflict with 
the world ; but perhaps those which are most 
naturally elicited in the sacred home-circle became 
emphasized, now that the world was fading away 
and conflict was at an end. On the eve of the 
Christmas holidays it was a sore trial to him to be 
unable to attend chapel exercises and give to the 
students the words of cheer and good-will that the 



206 APPENDIX. 

season suggested. In performing this duty for him 
I obeyed his injunction, and gave his promise that 
at their first gathering in January he should be 
present to offer the greetings of the new year. 
The promise was fulfilled. Though really too 
weak to leave his chamber with prudence, he was 
assisted upstairs ; and for the last time he occupied 
an arm-chair in the chapel where morning after 
morning for over a quarter of a century he had led 
in the devotional exercises of prayer and praise to 
the God whom he had served, and to whose service 
he had helped to consecrate thousands of young 
women now scattered over the breadth of our land. 
The emotions stirred up by the occasion made it 
impossible for him to address the students ; but his 
mute presence told what none could have the heart 
to say. His tottering footsteps as he walked down 
the aisle, his haggard face, his feeble, trembling 
voice, all indicated that his last prayer in that 
chapel had been offered, his last words of greeting 
and counsel had been said. Hundreds of eyes were 
wet with tears, hundreds of voices quivered in 
song. The new year had dawned in gloom ; and, 
ere its first month closed, the arm-chair was taken 
away, and in its place stood a coffin upon which 
rested a sheaf of full ripe wheat. 

That Dr. Crittenden should have been uncom- 
monly successful as a director in female education 
is not surprising. Rarely have I come into con- 
tact with any one who impressed me so much dur- 
ing a brief acquaintance. His success was largely 
due to his exquisite tact, ready sympathy, kindly 



APPENDIX. 



207 



geniality, and great quickness in reading human 
character. My memories of him are pleasant, exclu- 
sively pleasant ; and in following him to his grave 
I felt that I had lost a friend who, if newly acquired, 
was none the less a friend indeed whom I could 
honor, trust, and warmly esteem. 

W. LeConte Stevens. 




208 APPENDIX. 



By Professor C. E. West. 

My Dear Miss w * * * * 

I thank you for your kind invitation to aid in 
the preparation of a memoir of Mr. Crittenden, 
late Principal of Packer Institute, which the Trus- 
tees of that Institution have wisely entrusted to 
your hands. 1 am happy to comply with your re- 
quest, and add my mite to the undertaking in the 
form of a letter. 

Alonzo Crittenden has been identified with 
the cause of education in this State for nearly sixty 
years. In thousands of families his name is a 
household word, as sacred and familiar as that of 
father. Thousands of his pupils have felt the be- 
nign and subtle influence of his guiding mind. He 
has reared an imperishable monument in the affec- 
tions and memories of multitudes who venerate 
his character. 

My object in this communication will be briefly 
to sketch my own impressions of his life and char- 
acter. 

Our acquaintance began more than fifty years 
ago. We were born in adjoining towns in Massa- 
chusetts. Our families were intimately acquainted 
and distantly related by marriage. Mr. Critten- 
den was my senior; and as boys we attended dif- 
ferent academies, but completed our collegiate edu- 
cation at the same institution. He graduated in 



APPENDIX. 209 

1824, and was called to the Albany Female Acade- 
my to take part in its instruction, and was after- 
wards placed in charge of the institution as princi- 
pal. It was there I met him. In 1833 I went to 
Albany to study law, but was soon drawn away 
from my intended purpose to engage in teaching 
boys. Our schools were near each other, and our 
intercourse was more or less intimate. 

Albany was then the great political centre of the 
State. The Albany Regency was in the heyday 
of its popularity and power. It controlled the 
politics of the State. The society of the capital 
was brilliant and aristocratic. The Clintons, the 
Van Rensselaers, the Van Vectens, the Schuylers, 
the Spencers, the Van Burens, the Rents, and the 
Pruyns were among the distinguished families. It 
was the old Dutch city of colonial fame. It was 
noted for its distinguished men. Among its pul- 
pit orators were William B. Sprague, John N. 
Campbell, B. T. Welsh, and Edwin N. Kirk. The 
legal and medical professions stood in the first rank ; 
there were literary and scientific circles of no mean 
order. There Henry James, Sr., spent his early 
manhood in the city of his birth ; Alfred B. Street 
sang his lovely pastorals ; Anne C. Botta began 
to lisp in song ; there Amos Dean wrote his 
History of Civilization ; Chancellor Kent, the 
first President of the Academy, his Commen- 
taries ; Solomon Southwick, his Letters of a Lay- 
man ; T. Romeyn Beck, his great work on Medi- 
cal Jurisprudence ; and Joseph Henry began his 
eminent scientific career. There John Paterson, 



210 APPENDIX. 

the printer, read for his pastime the mathematical 
treatises of La Place and La Grange. The press 
was represented by such men as Edwin Croswell 
and Thurlovv Weed. At an earlier day there 
might have been seen at the Tontine Coffee-House 
on State Street, a celebrated rendezvous, many of 
the leading politicians and distinguished men of 
the State. Among these were De Witt Clinton, 
Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Morgan Lewis, 
Daniel D. Tompkins, Chancellor Livingston, and 
many others. 

It was in this small community of brilliant and 
cultivated people that Mr. Crittenden began his 
life-work as a teacher. There was everything to 
stimulate the young man. The very atmosphere 
was surcharged with magnetic influences. There 
was no such thing as concealment from the eye of 
criticism. His work would be known and read of 
all men. 

The Academy, founded in 1814, had gained 
nothing more than a local reputation. The build- 
ings were poor and located in an undesirable part 
of the city ; the patronage was small. Now was 
the time for action. Mr. Crittenden took society 
as he found it, became a skilled tactician, and 
turned the current of popular influence to his ad- 
vantage. This was right, so long as he did not 
violate the principles of comity and fair dealing. 
Success is often the cause of envy and disparage- 
ment, and sometimes of bitter hatred, in the heated 
rivalries of practical life. Mr. CRITTENDEN, while 
a wise and sagacious manager, had the reputation 



APPENDIX. 2 1 1 

of being an honest man. No stain was ever found 
upon his moral character. He was a great ad- 
mirer of Dr. Nott, his college president. The 
Doctor was an eminent tactician, and in his lectures 
on Kames' * Elements of Criticism' taught his stu- 
dents the great lessons of how to make the most ot 
life. Many of his students became eminent poli- 
ticians, among whom were William H. Seward 
and John C. Spencer. 

The Academy, as I have said, was founded in 
1814, and was known as the Union School. In 1821 
an act of incorporation was obtained from the leg- 
islature, and Chancellor Kent was chosen president 
of the board of directors named in the charter. 
The institution took its new corporate name of the 
Albany Female Academy. Mr. Crittenden was 
the fourth principal. His predecessors were Hor- 
ace Goodrich, Tibbeus Booth, and Frederick Mat- 
thews. In the beginning the school was small — 
some thirty pupils. In 1821 a new spacious build- 
ing was reared, and so rapidly did the school in 
crease that an additional building was erected in 
1827. These edifices continued to be occupied by 
the Academy till 1834, when its celebrity and num- 
bers became so great as to justif}^ and demand the 
erection of a beautiful and commodious structure on 
one of the most fashionable streets of the city. A 
new career of prosperity opened before it. It be- 
came the pride of the city, and was patronized by 
the dite of society. Its anniversary exercises at- 
tracted large assemblies of admiring friends. It 
was a great success. For twenty years Mr. Crit- 



212 APPENDIX. 

TENDEN presided over its fortunes, until he was 
called to this city to enter upon a greater work. 
His life in this city I leave to your own pen to 
describe. In passing, I wish to put upon record 
a little matter of personal history. 

The first inception of the Brooklyn Female Aca- 
demy may be found in the following note : 

Brooklyn, 29th October, 1844. 
Charles E, West, Esq. 

Dear Sir : There are a number of persons in 
Brooklyn desirous of having a school here after the 
model of the Rutgers Female Institute. You would 
oblige me if you could, at some time convenient to 
yourself, give me the plan of that school as at first 
gotten up, with cost of buildings, yearly expenses, 
revenue, and any information relative thereto which 
it may be proper to impart ; together with any sug- 
gestions which you might deem useful in organizing 
a similar institution. 

Yours respectfully, 

D. G. Cartwright. 

I responded b}'' inviting Mr. Cartwright and his 
triends to meet me at Rutgers Institute. He came 
in company with Mr. Francis Spies, and we talked 
over the course to be taken to awaken public inte- 
rest in such an enterprise. We had several meet- 
ings which resulted in calling a public meeting in 
Brooklyn, notices of which were posted at the 
ferries and other places. A full attendance was 
had, the object was stated, a discussion followed, 
a subscription of stock was circulated, the amount 
proposed was secured, a board of trustees chosen, 



APPENDIX. 2 1 3 

and a charter obtained. I planned the Academy 
building which was burned in the winter of 1852, 
and assisted in selecting a site and preparing a cur- 
riculum of the course of study. Mr. Cartwright 
was appointed trustee. He was an efficient worker 
and contributed much to the early success of the 
enterprise. He was pleased in witnessing the 
material realization of his ideal institution. Mr. 
Crittenden was chosen principal, and his long 
service in the Institute has been a credit to himself 
and an honor to the city. 

I came to Brooklyn in i860, and for nearly a 
quarter of a century it has been my good fortune 
to live near him on terms of friendly intercourse. 
Although engaged in the management of indepen- 
dent institutions, we felt that we were laboring in 
a common cause for the benefit of the young. The 
field we were called upon to cultivate was large 
enough for both, with room to spare. 

His home was the true ideal of a Christian house- 
hold. His wife was an accomplished lady, and 
contributed largely to her husband's success. At 
the time of their marriage she was a young lady ot 
rare personal beauty and refinement. I remember 
seeing her on their wedding-trip to her husband's 
native town. Her favorite exercise was horseback 
riding. Mounted on her spirited charger, she was 
queen of the turf. The impression she made on 
my youthful mind by those equestrian excursions 
has never faded. At the head of a large family of 
young ladies, she made her influence felt in mould- 
ing their manners and fitting them for the duties 



214 APPENDIX. 

and honors of society. In old age she was lovely. 
The mellowing tints of autumn came slowly on and 
lent a charm to her classic face. As her sun went 
down, the shadows of earth grew longer and 
darker but the heavens above which were to re- 
ceive her spirit glowed with a divine beauty. 

In forming an estimate of Mr. Crittenden's 
character, it is not difficult to name its leading char- 
acteristics. Among these, if I mistake not, were 
intuitive insight, tact, push, industry, kindness, and 
veneration. He was quick to see, wise in the selec- 
tion of means, and ready to act. He was kind, 
easily approached, vigilant, self-reliant, and untir- 
ing. He venerated the great and good men of every 
age. He was conservative in religion and faithful to 
every trust. Such a man was sure to win his way 
in the world, in whatever calling he chose. He 
was rewarded with a long career of usefulness. 
He had reached the outer limit of human life before 
the messenger came and summoned him to another 
sphere of higher honors and more precious rewards. 
The death of the good man brought grief to many 
hearts and tears to many eyes. There is consola- 
tion in the thought of such a loss, and that is, his 
work did not die with him. That abides. The 
rich harvest has been gathered for immortality. 

Chas. E. West. 

Brooklyn Heights Seminary, Oct. 15, 1884. 



II. 



APPENDIX. 217 



DR. BOOTH'S ADDRESS. 

Englewood, N. J., Oct. 18, 1884. 
My Dear Sir: 

I send you a manuscript which contains so much 
of the address delivered at your father's funeral as 
I have been able to recall. Perhaps it may be of 
service to you. At all events, I shall be glad to drop 
a flower, however simple and common it may seem, 
upon his grave. 

Sincerely yours, 

Henry M. Booth. 

E. W. Crittenden, Esq. 



The shock of corn which the hand of affection has 
placed upon his bier is emblematic of the honored 
teacher's life. In it we read the lessons of his useful- 
ness. For this is the harvest of many plantings, the 
ripe grain of a successful husbandry. By the fruits 
of the earth, which are gathered in their seasons, 
are represented industry, frugality, and intelligence. 
These are not the accidents of nature, nor are they to 
be referred alone to the operation of nature's laws. 
Man's thought and effort must be recognized, inas- 
much as he has carefully preserved seed each year for 
the sowing, and has then cultivated the earth dili- 
gently in order that he may reap; and God's fidelity 
to the ancient covenant must also be recognized, since 



2l8 APPENDIX. 

He alone with the sunshine and the rain can give the 
increase. 

No life of man stands apart from its environment 
or beyond the reach of the divine blessing. We owe 
much of our present strength to our ancestry, and 
still more to the great Father of us all. Especially is 
this true of the lives which are peculiarly rich and 
helpful. These are the elect lives for whose efficiency 
the generations have been preparing under the guid- 
ance of God. 

With many of the best men of our times Professor 
Crittenden could trace his lineage through a sober, 
hard-working, and devout ancestry. He came from 
a rural community where the life of the people, dur- 
ing the early part of this century, was well fitted to 
develop the best traits of character. There was no 
excess of wealth and very little severe poverty. Toil 
was known to be a divine ordination. The Word of 
God was an open volume in every home, and the 
family altar v^ritnessed the morning and evening sacri- 
fices. The sanctuary and the school-house stood side 
by side. Attention to education was an evidence of a 
determination to excel. The opportunities of life 
vi^ere prized by those who meant to use them. From 
scenes such as these our friend w^ent forth to con- 
secrate himself to the grandest of all vocations, even 
that which secured the activity of the Son of God 
during the three years of His incarnate ministry. In 
a Christian spirit he entered upon and conducted his 
work. With clear perception he grasped the fact, so 
often in debate, that Christianity means the best cul- 
ture of spirit, soul, and body ; that the thought of 
Christ marches ahead of the centuries; and that no 
true science no pure art, can be antagonistic to the 



APPENDIX. 2ig 

religion of the cross. He was a Christian educator. 
This is his rare distinction. For more than half a 
century he maintained a position — and one of which 
he had a right to be proud — in the front rank of his 
associates. From the institutions under his charge 
hundreds of noble women have gone forth to adorn 
homes, to reproduce his work in other schools, and to 
evangelize the world. Upon multitudes of graduates 
he has conferred the degrees of honor which this 
illustrious foundation grants: and now he has received 
his degree from our Lord, whom he has served so 
well. 

" I hear again the Master's simple words, 
So low, so sweet, conferring Thy degree : 
' Of such My kingdom is ; let none forbid 
His coming unto me.'" 

Thus the grain ripened and its maturity was 
reached. The fruitage was freely given year by 
year. An abundant usefulness was realized. Then 
the reaper came, and the harvest of a new planting 
was gathered in by God, With well-rounded charac- 
ter, with a rich Christian consciousness, the scholar, 
teacher, friend, and father was transported to the 
" sweet fields beyond the swelling flood," where 
strength and beauty appear forever in perpetual bloom. 
There is no autumn there, and no decay; no chill of 
winter, and no storms. 

Therefore we are here not with the sorrow of de- 
spair, but with the chastened sorrow of a grief which 
laments the absence of one beloved and honored, 
which rejoices that a life has been grandly lived on 
earth, which believes that heaven is now the sphere 
of activity of a spirit prepared for its purity and joy. 



220 APPENDIX. 

He has "come to his grave as a shock of corn cometh 
in in his season." 

" Do you mourn when another star 

Shines out from the glorious sky? 
Do you weep when the sound of war 

And the rush of conflict die ? 
Why then should your tears flow down, 

And your hearts seem sorely riven, 
For another gem in the Saviour's crown, 

And another soul in heaven ?" 



APPENDIX. 221 



DR. STORRS'S ADDRESS, 

as reported by the Brooklyn Eagle, was substan- 
tially as follows : 

I met him [Dr. Crittexden] first in the building 
which preceded the present structure, nearly thirty- 
eight years ago, before I had come to Brooklyn to 
reside. He seemed then in delicate health rather 
than robust, and as if any shock of disease might 
strike him fatally. At different times since he has 
been feeble, though always cheerful and never com- 
plaining. Still at different times one meeting him in 
the street in cold or stormy weather might easily 
feel that he could hardly bear suc-h common exposure; 
and yet he had passed the usual limit of life, had 
even passed the fourscore years, and, as was said re- 
cently by President Hill of President Hopkins, "he 
had borrowed twelve years of eternity." A long life 
is not necessarily a blessed life, but his has been, as 
has been said, a peculiarly happy one; yet my own 
pastoral relation to him has covered the years in which 
repeated and sore sorrows have fallen upon him: in 
the long illness and final death of his accomplished and 
beloved daughter; in the protracted illness, followed 
also by death, of his cherished and honored wife, in 
whom always his heart rejoiced and rested; and only a 
few weeks since in the sudden illness and death of a be- 
loved grandchild. He has been under these shadows 
in these recent vears, and vet his life has been a 



222 APPENDIX. 

happy one in the midst of it all — partly by reason of 
his freshness and vivacity of force which continued 
with him to the last, and of his genial and kindly 
cheerfulness and warm affection which never failed. 
He was always happy, too, in his own work. Many 
men perform the duties entrusted to them feeling 
them a burden. He was always enthusiastic as a 
teacher, never leaving the school until the last day of 
the term had arrived, returning to it promptly and 
gladly on the first day of the new year. His en- 
thusiasm in his work never abated and never ceased. 
He was especially happy in his home, full of tender- 
ness and full of gladness in the society of those who 
made it beautiful and precious. He was happy be- 
yond most in the kindly relations which connected 
him with many of the living here and afar, and in the 
recollections of many of the dead with whom he had 
had cordial and affectionate relations, whom he de- 
lighted to recall, and of whom he was never weary of 
speaking. Above all he was happy in his firm and 
unwavering Christian faith which he had received 
in childhood, and which he maintained unfalteringly 
to the end; never staggered before any mystery, 
and never yielding before any assault, but always 
maintaining the robust and energetic convictions of 
the truth which had been his from early life. The 
Gospel to him brought life and immortality to light. 
It showed the God of creation as the God of redemp- 
tion. It showed the power of the regenerating spirit 
and the clear, lofty promise of the life eternal. In it 
he had gladness and assurance always; from it he 
drew his comfort in the darkest hour of grief. The 
shadow of death which was in his household was 
again and again illumined by the light of the promised 



APPENDIX. 223 

immortality. It has been said that the promise of the 
Old Testament is worldly welfare; that the promise of 
the New Testament is tribulation. Both were ful- 
filled to him, but he felt that the tribulation came 
from the same loving divine kindness which had sent 
all the other blessings of his life. And even in sor- 
row he was strong and at rest in the confidence of 
God's love. His life was eminently a useful life, far 
wider in reach of influence than would have seemed 
probable when he first came to the city. The city 
itself had then but sixty thousand inhabitants. It 
was secluded more than now from the general life of 
the country. The Academy to which he came, as 
matched against this noble Institution, was compara- 
tivel)^ small. It might be anticipated that his work 
would reach usefully many of the misses and young 
ladies of the town itself, but hardly that it should 
reach to all parts of the land and be a presence and a 
power in multitudes of homes throughout the country. 
Yet this he has accomplished. As a teacher he has 
been stimulating and suggestive, stirring the minds 
of pupils with many eager questions, as well as im- 
parting knowledge. As Principal of the Institute he 
has administered its affairs with rare faithfulness and 
discretion, so that among all the teachers who at 
different times have been associated with him here 
there has been, so far as I am aware, no serious jar or 
break of harmony. He has given moral impulse and 
guidance as well as intellectual instruction. His 
heart was more in the religious services of this chapel 
than in any other specific department of instruction 
in the class-room, and many have received from him 
impulses to goodness and the beauty and faith of 
consecration. Around his coffin as a centre are 



224 APPENDIX. 

gathered to-day the remembrances and the honoring 
regard of the older and the younger alike. Those who 
are now themselves in advanced life received from 
him instruction in their youth, while those who are 
still children here have been equally conscious of his 
power to bless. He has built his own spirit into the 
Institute itself. His portrait may hang upon the can- 
vas in the library, but the real image of his mind and 
character will be found hereafter in the institution 
which for almost forty years he has so efficiently 
guided and controlled. 

Of a life so rounded, so prolonged and finished in 
happiness and usefulness we can have no words of re- 
gret to speak. It seems, as one looks back upon it 
from the end, like a long day of summer, clouded at 
intervals, yet for the most part bright, and closing in 
the beauties and peace of sunset. His way of life did 
not lead into the sear and yellow leaf, yet he had all 
which should accompany old age, as honor, love, 
obedience, and troops of friends. We are here only 
to learn such lessons of his life as he would teach, if 
his dumb tongue again could speak. Certainly he 
would tell us that the source of happiness in him, of 
culture both of mind and heart, of power over others 
for their blessing, had been in the Gospel of the Son 
of God; that by its truths his mind had received its 
highest illumination; that by its promises his spirit 
had been cheered and lifed from the earth; that in its 
hopes his joy had been, and in their fulfilment was 
now his eternal happiness and rest. He would tell 
us that the loving-kindness of the Heavenly Father, 
which had been with him all his life and with him at 
its end, was now more manifest than ever amid the 
wonders of immortality. 



APFEXDIX. 225 

Quoting some of the Scripture passages which 
Dr. Crittenden had deHghted most to dwell 
upon, the speaker concluded by saying: 

At the very end of life, when he had scarcely 
strength to speak, he wished to be lifted and sup- 
ported that he might saj' one word more to those 
around him, and the word which came feebly to his 
dying lips was that word " Love," — the word which 
is the secret of all the Bible, which was the motive of 
Christ's mission and the power of His life; which is 
the element of holiness, and which is the source of 
victory in death — which is the life of life eternal. It 
cannot but be that a spirit so genial and active, so 
affectionate and reverent, shall find immortality a 
sphere for culture and for work continuing and un- 
limited. 

It is the privilege of age that more of those associa- 
tions with our life are gathered within the veil than 
tarry here. When the little child dies we sometimes 
feel or fear that the realms into which it enters may 
be strange, that it will meet few there whom it has 
known on earth. The Saviour assures us of such that 
" their angels do alwa3'S behold the face of My 
Father in heaven." And human friends who have 
not known them on earth, we fondly trust, will know 
and cherish them for our sake. But when one passes, 
like our friend, into that other sphere, how many 
shall there be to welcome him as he comes ! Those 
whose faces had ceased to shine upon him on the 
earth now radiant in celestial light ; those whose 
voices had been silenced in this world, now ringing 



226 



APPENDIX. 



with the heavenly music, shall meet and greet him 
with the fulness of heavenly love. 

We look upon this life as not closed but con- 
summated. 



-->^ie 



APPENDIX. 227 



DR. TALMAGE'S ADDRESS. 

On the Friday following the funeral Rev. Dr. T. 
DeWitt Talmage, at his weekly prayer-meeting, 
gave the following beautiful tribute to the late 
Principal of the Packer Collegiate Institute : 

The city of Brooklyn and many people all over the 
land sighed heavily when they heard this week that 
Professor Crittexdex of the Packer Institute was 
dead. We never had a kinder heart or nobler nature 
in this city of Brooklyn. His life-work was to make 
the people wise, happy, and good. Forming his ac- 
quaintance at my coming here, I began by thinking 
well of him at the start, and I have thought better 
and better of him all the way. I am so sad that he is 
gone. How we shall miss him from our social circles 
and our churches! What an educator of the young, 
himself the grandest lesson of what industry and 
kindliness and the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ 
may achieve! What an impression on the daughters 
of America — thousands of thern passing under his 
benediction! When will the life of the good man 
cease? Not while the world stands; for who shall 
estimate the widening influence, from generation to 
generation, and from age to age, in all parts of the 
land ? I find the matrons, some of them already 
silver-haired, telling of what he did to give them no- 
bler views of life and fit them for the spheres they 
now occupy. 



228 APPENDIX. 

I never thought him old, he was so young in all his 
sympathies, so buoyant in his spirits, so anticipative 
of good yet to be accomplished; but bereavement and 
watching with the sick, and many years of absorbing 
application to hard work, will tell at last, and these 
Friday-evening shadows lie on Professor Critten- 
den's grave. The whole city rises up to do him 
honor. All who speak of him find their words melt- 
ing into tears. No one asks whether he was ready. 
Such a question would have been an absurdity. You 
might as well ask a soldier at the close of an exhaus- 
tive war if he would like to go to his family at the 
homestead; you might as well ask a sea-captain, after 
being tossed on a long voyage, if he would like to see 
Barnegat lighthouse. A useful life well closed and 
multitudes pronouncing his eulogium. Call them pro- 
fessors or school-teachers or educators, as you may, 
what a mission for all those who direct the ris- 
ing generation on the high paths of integrity and 
honor! Many of these instructors on incompetent 
salaries and in poorly ventilated apartments, oft- 
times disheartened with the refractory dispositions 
under their charge, and toiling with little recognition 
on the part of a sometimes critical public, may now 
learn that rest comes at last; all anxieties hushed 
forever. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; 
they rest from their labors, and their works do follow 
them." 

Alonzo Crittenden — may his name be held in 
everlasting remembrance! 



III. 



C^xfvaftsi tiom '£ttUx$ of Cantlalcttre wxitUn U 

Pf, ^(Uvarrt (J^dttfwtlnt and |amiUi utUx 

the §tni\x of 5v. Crittcmku. 



APPENDIX. 231 

When the telegram reached Asheville announc- 
ing the passing away of the elder of the two old 
friends, the younger gathered up his failing ener- 
gies and dictated to his wife the following letter 
of sympathy and condolence: 

Asheville, N. C, January 26, 1883. 
My Dear Friends: 

The news of your dear father's death did not reach 
me until this morning. Notwithstanding the days of 
anxious suspense and your kind letters warning us of 
the approaching end, it seemed sudden and startling, 
as such news always does. 

Can it be that he is really gone ? 

From my sick-bed I look through the open window 
and can see the lovely landscape, with its mountain, 
valley, and river bathed in the glorious light of this 
southern sun. The whole heavens are overspread 
with the purest light, and through its deep sapphire 
I can almost see the crystal pavement where the re- 
deemed walk. And he is among the shining throng 
that crowd those golden streets ! We would not 
bring him back. 

I was near him in spirit during all those days of sink- 
ing. . . . You know how I loved him. It is seldom 
that two lives have been so intimately knit together 
as ours. For more than thirty years we have known 
and loved each other. It is hard to part, and the 
gloom that settles on my own spirit assures me that 
life can never again be to me quite what it was. 



232 APPENDIX. 

But why should I dwell on my own sorrow in the 
presence of your overshadowing grief ? I have lost a 
friend, you a father ! How my heart has gone out to 
you during the swift and terrible events of this 
strange winter ! But, my dear friends, we are in 
God's hands, and He is too wise to err. Let us trust 
him for His grace and follow where He leads. He 
will surely bring us into the light. 

Affectionately and sincerely yours, 

D. G. Eaton. 

Januarj'- 27, 18S3. 

We are all greatly pained to learn of the death of your 
honored and beloved father. A few days ago I heard of his 
sickness, and I was hoping to find time to go over to Brook- 
lyn and call upon him. But I have been so closely occupied 
that I have not been free to go as I desired. I may not see 
him again until we meet among the saints in heaven. 

Dear old man ! His life here was a benediction. Became 
to us with a smile and a word of cheer, and he left us in the 
same way. Few reach his years and retain his activity. His 
conversation was as fresh as that of a man of forty, and so 
was his sympathy. He numbered the years until he had 
counted more than fourscore, and yet his heart was the 
heart of a child. To me he will always be a pleasant mem- 
ory. I am grateful that I have had even a little of the friend- 
ship of so great and good a man. 

He waited, lonesome and sad after God called your mother. 
He knew that the time of his own departure could not be 
far distant. His lamp was trimmed and burning; when his 
summons came, he went home with great joy. 

Henry M. Booth. 

I was greatly pained to read this morning the announce- 
ment of your father's death. He is mourned by friends who 
had known him longer than I ; but no one can have known 



^ APPENDIX. 233 

him more agreeably. The world seems poorer by his going 
out of it. 

I find it to be impossible to attend the funeral. So you 
will please excuse me where I find it so difficult to excuse 
myself, and accept the assurance of my sincerest sympathy. 
Yours very truly, 

RoswELL D. Hitchcock. 

Washington, D.C, January 24. 

Your telegram has been forwarded from Cambridge. At 
length my dear life-long friend has gone to join your dear 
mother. . . 

How full of years and of never-ceasing good deeds, bless- 
ing all with whom he came in contact, your father's life has 
been ! He has had a most lasting influence on my whole 
life. It could scarcely have been more penetrating if I had 
been your brother. E. N. Horsford. 

Montreal, March 11. 
I feel most grateful to you for so promptly writing. The 
death to us has been terribly sudden, not having heard of 
your father being otherwise than in usual health. I had a 
most kind letter dated November 9th, written, as he said, by a 
borrowed hand, referring me to John, ist chapter, 13th and 14th 
verses, and cordially urging us to trust the Lord. . . I shall 
never cease to regret that my children could not have known 
personally one so tenderly and pleasantly associated with my 
early life, and one to whom I feel I owe so much. Very 
many thanks for the photograph, which I think very good of 
the dear face which will never be effaced from my memory. 

H. I. W. 

50 First Place, January 24. 
The gap which the death of your honored father has made 
calls forth my deepest sympathy for yourself and your dear 
family. When through long years I look back to the just 
path which he took for his pilgrimage, and remember with 
what earnestness he filled that path with good deeds, and 



234 APPENDIX. 

how the very beauty of his character caused others to love 
wisdom, I feel thankful that such a man has lived ; and am 
sure that though he is now with the blessed ones in glory, 
and away from us, yet his influence will be long felt by many 
thankful hearts. K. D. 

Rome, February 24. 
You and your family have our very sincere sympathies in the 
death of your father, the news of which reached us last week. 
Your father is associated with my earliest remembrances, and 
for forty years my associations with him and your mother 
have been to me sources of the greatest interest and pleasure. 
Your mother was a noble woman, towering above other 
women ; kindly, affectionate, and true. A. M. O. 

January 23, 1883. 
The many years we have been associated with your dear 
father makes us feel we have lost a personal friend and must 
mingle our tears with yours on this sad occasion. 

Not sad to him, for to go into the presence of the dear 
Saviour whom he loved and so faithfully served, and to join 
the loved ones gone before, is not sad, with him " instant death 
was instant glory," No more weariness, no more suffering^ 
no more pain, but everlasting rest and joy. 

Yours in deep sympathy, 

H. J. and E. G. 

Our thoughts and sympathies have been with you all very 
much these past days. So much has gone from my life in 
the loss of one of my best and kindest of friends that it seems 
very lonely even for me, for Mr. Crittenden has done more 
in moulding me for my life-work, and in helpful encourage- 
ment in it, than any one else. The memory of his love and 
kindness will always be very precious. I. P. W. 

My best friend was your father ; and when I heard of his 
sickness, I was in hopes that he would be spared, and at some 
future day I might make him feel proud of his ward. 

A. J. Fox. 



IV. 



APPEAWIX. 237 



Minutes and Resolutions adopted by 
THE PRESIDENT AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES 

THE EVENING AFTER DR. CRITTENDEN'S DEATH. 

The announcement of the death this morning of Alonzo Crit- 
tenden, the venerable and long honored Principal of the Packer 
Collegiate Institute, is received by the Board of Trustees with 
profound sensibility. The successful head of great schools for 
higher female education for more than half a century, and of our 
Brooklyn Female Academy, and its corporate successor, the 
Packer Collegiate Institute, for nearly two score of years, he had 
attained the highest rank and distinction as an upright and skilful 
educator and administrator. Although he had passed his four- 
score years before his late illness just terminated by his lamented 
death, his eye had not become dim nor his natural force abated. 
Under his wise, vigilant, and efficient administration, the Albany 
Female Academy, the Brooklyn Female Academy, and the Packer 
Collegiate Institute successively prospered and attained a fore- 
most place among the academic institutions of the country. Alert, 
punctual, judicious and firm in his headship, he formed, devel- 
oped, and directed numerous accomplished teachers, and kindled 
the studious zeal while he won the affectionate confidence and re- 
gard of the thousands of scholars he had helped to train for 
elevated and useful lives. The members of this Board, responsi- 
bly and intimately associated with him for so many years in the care 
and direction of this Institute, bear emphatic testimony to the in- 
tegrity of his character, the blameless purity of his life, the un- 
sparing zeal with which he devoted himself to his duties as prin- 
cipal, and the rare tact, judgment, and temper with which he ful- 
filled the often difficult and always laborious trusts committed to 
him. Teachers and scholars now in this Institution have heard, 
and thousands of both who have been taught or trained in it, and 
are now ministering to the peace and joy of many homes in this 
and other cities and States, will hear of his death with tears and 
tender regrets. With a profound conviction of his rare worth 
and of our great loss, we unite in the acclaim, " Well done, good 
and faithful servant ! " 

The Board directs this minute to be entered upon its perma- 
nent records, and that a copy of it, with an expression of our 
warmest sympathy, be sent to the bereaved family of our late 
honored and regretted associate and friend. 

Resolved, That this Board will attend the funeral of Mr. Crit- 
tenden, and that it is the desire of the Board that the funeral ser- 
vices be solemnized in our chapel. 



238' 



APPENDIX. 



Resolutions of the 
FACULTY OF THE PACKER COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE 

ADOPTED THE DAY OF DR. CRITTENDEN'S DEATH. 

Only death teaches us to know the full measure of the life it 
closes. It is a grand thing to outlast the fourscore years as- 
signed as the earthly limit of human existence, to look with un- 
dimmed eye and unclouded intellect from the mountain-top of old 
age, back upon the ascending path of an honorable and well-spent 
life, then forward and upward, with confidence and faith to 
another and higher life for which the gathering years have been 
passed in preparation. 

Our beloved President, Dr. Alonzo Crittenden, has been 
taken from us in the full ripeness of a well-rounded life. His 
was a life devoted to the cause of education, and of which the 
Packer Collegiate Institute is the living monument. As an edu- 
cator, he sought ever to develop not intellect alone, but charac- 
ter. He operated not merely through the medium of instruction, 
but yet more through that of exquisite tact, ready sympathy, 
kindly geniality, moral force, and quick personal magnetism. 
None, whether teachers or pupils, could come within the sound 
of his voice without feeling the prompt influence of his personali- 
ty. Clear in his ideas, ready and reliable in judgment, always 
kind and considerate, whether in giving advice or conveying re- 
proof, his power as a guide made his administration one that was 
marked by cheerful and positive accordance in aim among those 
over whom he was placed as president, and singular freedom 
from friction in the management of details. He has impressed 
his individuality upon hundreds cf teachers and thousands of stu- 
dents throughout the existence of this institution, with which he 
has been identified from its first organization. To each of us he 
was a personal friend in whom there was no guile, on whose sin- 
cerity perfect reliance could be placed, and whose rich experi- 
ence and ready adaptability made his advice ever worthy of con- 
fidence. We mourn him as our President, but equally do we 
mourn him as our friend. 

Since it has pleased the Giver of all life to take back that which 
is His own, be it resolved, by the teachers of the Packer Colle- 
giate Institute, 

That the death of our loved and honored President, Dr. Alonzo 
Crittenden, is a calamity which fills us with deepest grief, and 
before which we bow with humility, realizing the loss as one 
which cannot be filled, but recognizing the Power that has limited 
the years of man, even when these are wholly spent in bestowing 
happiness and blessing upon all. 

That our warmest sympathy is offered to the bereaved family, 
whose loss is our loss and whose sore affliction we share in bitter 



APPENDIX. 239 

That this preamble and these resolutions be entered upon the 
record of the Packer Collegiate Institute, that a copy be sent to 
the family of him whose death we mourn, and that a copy be fur- 
nished for publication in the columns of the Brooklyn Daily 
Eagle. 

W. Le C. Stevens, 
S. K. Cook, 
M. E. Thalheimer, 
Charlotte Titcomb, 

Committee. 



Resolutions unanimously adopted by the 

ASSOCIATE ALUMNA OF THE PACKER COLLEGIATE 

INSTITUTE, 

JANUARY 25, 1883. 

Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God to take from us by death 
the honored President of our Alma Mater, identified with its 
interests from its organization and endeared to all of its graduates 
by so many ties of affection and respect ; 

Resolved, That in the death of Alonzo Crittenden the Packer 
Collegiate Institute has lost not only one of its firmest friends, 
but one who, by his high character, purity of life, earnestness and 
persistency of purpose, and marked ability as an educator, has 
raised the Institute to rank among the foremost of those devoted 
to the education of women. 

Resolved. That in view of the fact that he earnestly and intelli- 
gently advocated the cause of the higher education of women at a 
time when it had few advocates, and devoted a long and honored 
life to its practical attainment, he is worthy of the respect and 
grateful remembrance of all true women. 

Resolved, That we, the graduates of the Packer Collegiate Insti- 
tute, recognizing the influence of his high personal character and 
love of letters, and his earnest and untiring efforts for the ad- 
vancement of those under his charge, as well as his kindly sympa- 
thy and his interest in our success, feel that in his death we 
have lost a personal friend. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect for his memory, the Alumnae 
attend his funeral in a body. 

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with his family in their 
bereavement. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family, 
and that they be published in the daily papers. 

M. A. S. Kitchell, President Assoc. Alumiue. 
Adelina Bierck, Secretary. 



240 APPExYDIX. 

Resolutions adopted by the 
BROOKLYN COLLEGIATE AND POLYTECHNIC IN- 
STITUTE, 

JANUARY 27, 1883. 

The Trustees of the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Insti- 
tute, recalling with gratitude its early history and the intimate 
relations which have always existed between this Institution and 
the Packer Collegiate Institute, have learned with deep sorrow of 
the death, on Monday the 22d inst, of Professor Alonzo Critten- 
den, President of its Faculty. 

Called nearly a third of a century ago to the supervision of the 
Brooklyn Female Academy, and later to that of its successor the 
Packer Collegiate Institute, Professor Criptenden gave the ripest 
years of his manhood and all the treasures of a liberal and refined 
scholarship to the building up of these Institutions, and by his 
unremitting zeal and unstinted services secured for each a standing 
among our citizens that has reflected honor upon himself not only, 
but upon our city and State as well. 

After a prolonged life devoted to the higher education of the 
young women of our city, and of those drawn hither by the repu- 
tation he secured for the Institute, he has passed away from our 
companionship, leaving behind him the fragrant memory of an 
earnest life successfully spent in the highest culture of the intel- 
lects and hearts of those who have been placed under his care, 
who will gratefully cherish the remembrance of his deep interest 
in them and encouragement of them in their individual efforts and 
attainments. 

In grateful appreciation of the purity of his life, of the integrity 
of his character, of his earnest devotion to the higher training of 
those who in ever-increasing numbers have been confided to his 
teaching, of his genial companionship, and of his healthfulness in 
every educational and elevating instrumentality, the Trustees and 
Faculty of this Institute desire to place upon its permanent records 
their expression of their respect and esteem, and of their pro- 
found sympathy with the family and friends of our respected co- 
laborer in the cause of education, and with the Trustees and officers 
of the Institute over which so long and so efficiently he has pre- 
sided. 

In thus uniting with the whole community in our tribute of re- 
spect for a departed townsman, our sympathies are most tenderly 
invoked in behalf of his intimate and cherished friend and assist- 
ant for the entire term of his presidency. Professor Darwin G. 
Eaton, who is now absent from his professorship, seeking under 
medical advisement and in a less rigorous climate the restoration 
of his health. 

Universally respected and beloved for his scientific and literary 



APPENDIX. 241 

attainments, and for the beauty of his life and character, we extend 
to him the assurances of our sincere regard and sympathy and our 
warmest wishes for his speedy recovery, and for his early return 
to the sphere of his prolonged and appreciated labors. 

The President and Treasurer of the Board are requested to have 
this memorial engrossed upon its records, and copies thereof 
transmitted to the family of the late President Crittenden, to 
Professor Darwin G. Eaton at Asheville, N. C, and to the Board 
of Trustees of the Packer Collegiate Institute. 

\. H. Frothingham, President. 

Tasker H. Marvin, Treasurer. 



Resolutions adopted by the 
ADELPHI ACADEMY. 

At a special meeting of the Faculty of the Adelphi Academy 
held this 24th day of January, 1883, the following resolutions were 
adopted : 

Whereas, Our Heavenly Father in His infinite wisdom and love 
has called from his earthly home Dr. Alonzo Crittenden, Presi- 
dent of the Packer Collegiate Institute ; 

Resolved, That we tender our common and deep sympathy to 
the family of the deceased, and to the officers and teachers of the 
Institute which his spirit has guided for so many years. 

Resolved. That in his patient and warm friendship, in his faith- 
fulness and earnestness as a teacher, in his untiring and coura- 
geous efforts as an educator, and in his conserving and guiding 
genius as the presiding officer of large institutions of learning, we 
find consolation for all the changes which are common to this life. 

Resolved, That while we recognize in our late co laborer a pio- 
neer in the cause of higher education for women, an able expo- 
nent and defender of higher education in general, and an illustri- 
ous example for all teachers ; we are rendered most deeply grate- 
ful for that simple manhood, that pure and sturdy character, that 
Christian love and charity which silently but effectively moulded 
the lives of all his pupils and made him in reality a ruler among 
mankind, and a source of light and hope to all. 

S. G. Taylor, President of Faculty. 
W. C. Peckham, Sec7-etary. 



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